TOTP Rewind – the 90s | My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 03 DEC 1999

And the 1999 TOTP repeats disappoint yet again. The running order for this show looks uninspiring at best and downright dreadful at worst. Were there no other hits in this week’s chart that executive producer Chris Cowey could have slotted in instead?

*checks the official charts website*

Oh god. Not really. Of the seven acts on this episode, six were new entries between Nos 2 and 11 so Cowey could easily justify them all being featured. The only song going up was the song at No 1 which climbed one place to get there. Three hits were non-movers but they were all past chart toppers so they weren’t going to be on again (nor did I want them to be). There were another five new entries much further down the Top 40 but the only one I recognise is “Mary” by Supergrass which had already been on one of those TOTP on Tour episodes back in August. So, on this occasion, it’s not Cowey’s fault but the poor musical choices and taste of the record buying public. I suppose we’d better get on with it then…

Our host is Gail Porter and we start with the continuing story of the solo careers of the various members of the Spice Girls both past and present. This time it’s the turn of Melanie C who is onto her second solo single (not counting her collaboration with Bryan Adams on “When You’re Gone”) which is also the title track from her album “Northern Star”. Unlike her previous single “Goin’ Down” which saw her restyled as ‘Grunge Spice’, this track was much more pop. A thoughtful ballad that drew comparisons to Madonna’s “Frozen”, it’s actually another Frozen that I could imagine the song featuring in – the film of the same name. With its imagery about Northern and falling stars and lyrics like those below, that could be about Elsa couldn’t it?

“They tried to catch a falling star.
Thinking that she had gone too far.
She did but kept it hidden well.
Until she cracked and then she fell”

Writer(s): Rick Nowels, Melanie Chisholm

OK, it’s not “Let It Go” but then there the way that Mel C sings it as if she was auditioning for a role in a musical theatre show, over annunciating her words and ever so slightly over emoting her delivery. Nothing about either the song or the performance is terrible just on the wrong side of insincere. Melanie C would hit a rich vein of hits after entering the new millennium with two consecutive No 1 singles in 2000 helping her album to go three times platinum in the UK. She would never reach such commercial highs again though she remains a consistent recording artist and live performer.

It’s the highest of those aforementioned new entries now as Boyzone enter the charts at No 3 with “Everyday I Love You”. This was their 16th (!) UK Top 40 hit (including six No 1s) during the period 1994 to 1999 and their final one before the group’s nine year hiatus period that would see the various members pursue solo projects until a reunion tour in 2008. This final single release of the 90s seemed especially cynical. Nominally taken from their Best Of album “By Request”, it actually wasn’t or rather it wasn’t taken from the UK version – it was an extra track on the Asian Special Edition so presumably not available in this country? Was this a pure money grab to get the fanbase to part with even more of their pocket money? If so, they really shouldn’t have bothered as “Everyday I Love You” is a stinker of a song. So pedestrian and laboured, this was the very definition of money for old rope. Do you know, if you wanted a song about loving someone every day, I think this would, unbelievably, be a better choice…

By this point, the group’s profile was all about Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately with the other three literally reduced to the role of backing singers and barely that to be honest. You can kind of forgive them if their hearts weren’t really into performing that role. I don’t think Mikey Graham even gets one camera close up. Poor Mikey has been in the news this last couple of days following the Boyzone farewell concerts at London’s Emirates Stadium over the weekend. Billed as a full reunion of the four surviving members of the band (Stephen Gately died in 2009), Graham only featured in a handful of songs and remained seated for nearly all of them. Much has been made of his appearance with some horrible comments appearing on social media. The truth is that he’s struggled with alcoholism and his mental health which he discussed in the recent Boyzone documentary in which he also revealed he hadn’t spoken to his former band mates for five years. Given all of that, it would have been easier for him and understandable if he’d just declined to appear in the live shows at all so really he should have been praised and supported for the fact that he did instead of being on the receiving end of some vile abuse. Sadly, this is currently the way of the world we live in.

Time and time again in these TOTP repeats, we have encountered the ‘rinse and repeat’ approach to hit making – i.e. once you’ve stumbled on a winning formula, just do the exact same thing again for the follow up. Never mind that it shows a lack of creativity and an attitude of disdain towards the people who bought your first hit. Those mindless sheep will just accept any old rubbish if it’s packaged well enough. That might seem cynical in the extreme from me but what other stance can one take when comparing Alice Deejay’s first hit “Better Off Alone” with her second “Back In My Life”? There really isn’t much difference at all between the two to my non-dance culture ears. Maybe if you were a club DJ at the time you could split some hairs about bpm or something but that would have been dancing on a pinhead behaviour.

Anyway, Alice Deejay were back on the show and this time had lost Dutch producer DJ Jurgen who was credited on “Better Off Alone” (oh, is that the difference?). And yes, were is the correct word used above as Alice Deejay wasn’t just the woman on stage selling the song, they were a collective of Dutch Eurodance producers which raises the question of who was the woman out front? Well, she was Judith Anna Pronk (great name) who, after falling out of love with working within the music industry, pursued a career firstly in hair and make up and subsequently in photography with her website describing her as “A creative mind in the Netherlands”. A creative mind? Pity that the rest of the Alice Deejay people hadn’t shown the same creativity when coming up with a second hit.

There’s no upturn in quality with the next artist. In fact, it’s a definite low point not just in the show but within the whole of 1999. The success of Lolly takes some explaining and I’m not sure that I can. Three Top 10 singles in a six month period suggests she must have been doing something right but she was hopelessly in the wrong with all of them being intensely annoying bubblegum pop hits. The other day I managed to grate my index finger instead of the Red Leicester cheese I was holding – listening to a Lolly record elicited much the same painful reaction.

Her cover of the 1972 Michael Jackson hit “Rockin’ Robin”* was perhaps the worst of the lot. It’s a terrible song anyway but allied to Lolly’s pipsqueak vocals, it was downright diabolical. Who was buying this crap? I can only assume it was the weeny bopper market who probably also bought those records by Cartoons. Thankfully, just like Judith Anna Pronk, Lolly (real name Anna Shantha Kumble) had other career ambitions than being a pop star and would eventually move into the world of TV presenting and acting thus mercifully cutting short her time as a recording artist.

*”Rockin’ Robin” will always remind me of my Dad who was convinced that Michael Jackson was always older than he let on offering “Rockin’ Robin” as his evidence and stating that Jacko must have been at least 30 when it was in the charts. He was, in fact, 13 years old.

Oh God! Not another mindless, generic dance record! Yes, yes it is and it’s courtesy of “Turn Around” hitmakers Phats & Small. Unfortunately, they did have more than that one hit (four in total in fact) of which “Tonite” was the third. I can’t say I remember this one at all but, actually, having listened to it back, it’s not as bad as I would have expected. Despite the hackneyed start where the vocalist sings “Yeah, oo-oo, oo, oh yeah” and the awful descent into the “oo-oo” call and response routine with the studio audience, it’s got a very familiar, retro feel to it and reminds me of something I can’t quite put my finger on. There’s also something very comforting about the performance with all the people up on stage looking like they’re having the best time. Why did they use the American spelling of “Tonite” as the title of the track though? Was it just for conformity with the rhyming of “unite” and “white” in the lyrics?

Despite being for charity, the Children In Need single had never cut through in the same way that the Comic Relief song had. Looking at the list of titles that had been released on behalf of Children In Need, there’s many I don’t recognise at all probably because they didn’t even make the Top 40. 1987’s “Boy Eyed Jog” by Ray Moore anyone? Anyway, that trend changed dramatically in 1997 when the BBC pulled together a host of music names to record Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” for a video to promote the diversity of their music offering and proved so popular with viewers that it was given a full release for Children In Need, going to No 1, selling over a million copies and raising over £2 million for the charity. It remains the biggest selling Children In Need single to date.

1998 saw Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen do their Kylie and Jason impression with a version of “Especially For You” which went to No 3. Come 1999, it was the turn of Martine McCutcheon. On the face of it, she was a good choice. She had been the darling of EastEnders and had become a successful pop star with a No 1 to her name in the form of a classy big ballad. The song chosen for the charity was “Talking In Your Sleep” which I thought I didn’t know but the chorus of which brought childhood memories rushing back. My first thought on seeing the song’s title in the running order was that it was that 1983 single by US band The Romantics that Bucks Fizz covered a year later and took to No 15 but no. It was actually Crystal Gayle’s 1978 hit which had topped the American Country chart. Whilst Martine does her best with it, the production on it is all wrong and sounds clunky and mechanical next to the smoothness of the original.

Not wanting to miss an opportunity to promote McCutcheon’s album “You Me & Us”, for the Christmas period, her record label made it a double A-side with another cover version from said album. This time it was a Bee Gees track called “Love Me” which had been a hit for Yvonne Elliman in 1976. Martine performed the song at the Children in Need telethon on 26 November 1999 where she was supported by a choir of 100 children.

It’s “Talking In Your Sleep” which we get in this TOTP performance though which sees a rather jarring intro from Gail Porter who seems to be about to interview Martine judging by her proximity to her but when she fails to do that, she just ends up looking like she was invading Martine’s personal space or like the strange person on the bus who sits next to you even though there are loads of spare empty double seats. Maybe Gail had wanted to ask her about the very severe fringe Martine was sporting but lost her nerve. By peaking at No 6, “Talking In Your Sleep”/“Love Me” became the 14th highest ever charting Children In Need single.

And so to a fitting ending to this piss poor episode as the new No 1 is “The Millennium Prayer” by Cliff Richard. The song credits eight songwriters as having contributed to its composition including, and this is a bit out there but there’s a logic to it, Jesus Christ himself. It is the only single that credits Jesus as a lyricist. I don’t think anything else I could say will top that fact.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Melanie C	Northern Star	No
2	Boyzone	Everyday I Love You	Of course not
3	Alice Deejay	Back In My Life	Negative
4	Lolly	Rockin’ Robin	As if
5	Phats & Small	Tonite	Nope
6	Martine McCutcheon	Talking In Your Sleep / Love Me	Nah
7	Cliff Richard	The Millennium Prayer	Never

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002x8m8/top-of-the-pops-03121999

TOTP 26 NOV 1999

Posted on 2 Days Ago by 80stastic

As the last embers of the 90s lose their glow, we have arrived at the show that first featured perhaps the most controversial and divisive hit of the decade. Where the 60s had “Je t’aime… moi non plus”, the 70s turned up “God Save The Queen” and the 80s gave us “Relax”, the 90s delivered…well…all in good time. We’ve got a few other hits to get through before we arrive at that particular song (and I use that word very loosely).

Our host is Gail Porter and we begin, as had become TOTP tradition by this point (and a daft one at that), with last week’s No 1. Sort of. I’ve never thought of “It’s Only Us” by Robbie Williams as a chart topper – that status was reserved for the other song on the double A-side single “She’s The One” which was receiving all the airplay. However, despite that and despite the fact that it has dropped to No 3 this week, we get a performance of “It’s Only Us” to start the show. Clearly, this was recorded at the same time as the previous week’s run through of “She’s The One” but Robbie has taken off his heavy duty jacket to make it look like it’s a totally different appearance. We’re wise to you Robbie.

“It’s Only Us” didn’t originally feature on the “I’ve Been Expecting You” album but was added to it in 2000 following a lawsuit brought by Ludlow Music on behalf of London Wainwright III who claimed that the track “Jesus In A Camper Van” featured a lyric wholly based on one from Wainwright’s song “I Am The Way”. Williams claimed he’d heard the lyric “Every Son of God gets a little hard luck sometimes, especially when he goes around saying he’s ‘the way.'” whilst in rehab but that cut no ice with the judge in the case who ordered that 25% of income generated by “Jesus In A Camper Van” must go to Ludlow Music and that the track be removed from future copies of “I’ve Been Expecting You”. It was, of course, replaced by “It’s Only Us” whilst “Jesus In A Camper Van” is currently not available on any of the major streaming platforms.

Next up is another performance which, like Robbie Williams, I’m pretty sure was recorded back to back with another song by the artist in a musical version of a BOGOF offer. Unlike our opening act though, this artist was at the TOTP studio months prior to this broadcast as opposed to just the other week. Back in the May of 1999, Whitney Houston was on the show singing “My Love Is Your Love” to an appreciative studio audience. Clearly, that wasn’t the only song they were treated to that day. Just check out the YouTube thumbnail for that song below and then compare it with the one for her performance of “I Learned From The Best”…

Yep, exactly the same outfit and hairstyle. There’s no doubt that they were recorded on the same day. Whitney was also in the studio when she did a run through of “It’s Not Right But It’s OK” and although her outfit is different, I’m willing to bet that was recorded at the same time as the other two songs as well. What does all this mean? I’m not sure it means anything other than the traditional divvying out by the TOTP producers of spots on the show’s running order based on weekly chart positions was clearly being undermined by the practices employed here by Whitney and her team.

Getting back to “I Learned From The Best” though, this one seemed to be a return to the power ballad formula of old which had brought her so much success back in the 80s. Not surprising really as it was written by the Queen of the Power Ballad herself Diane Warren. However, it’s not exactly a traditional love song but a swipe at a former lover by a woman that has turned down his attempts of reconciliation by telling him that she learned how to reject him from the way he used to do it to her. Then there there’s the song’s sound which although it has the established key change in it, also has a swagger to it as it sashays around your ears. If it was a free kick in a football match, the commentator would say that the player taking it had put some swazz on it. Unlike those first two hits from her “My Love Is Your Love” album, “I Learned From The Best” wasn’t a big seller peaking at No 19 though I’m sure it helped to squeeze out a few more sales of the album from the Christmas retail period.

We have missed the third artist on tonight as it was R Kelly and so has been edited out. Why couldn’t the BBC have been doing this for all the potentially offensive acts in these repeats rather than just not broadcasting the whole show (mind you, some of these 90s TOTPs have been stinkers so maybe it was better that they didn’t). Anyway, it’s straight on to…oh…Glamma Kid. Who? It’s that bloke who had a hit with Shola Ama based around an old Sade track. Seeing as that strategy brought him a Top 10 hit, he thought he’d double down on it but this time he chose Carly Simon’s 1982 hit “Why”. I can’t recall this one at all so let me remind myself of it. Back in three minutes…

…well, that was an absolute car crash. If it was a firework it would have been called Satanic Desecration. Just head-bendingly awful. How dare he take Carly’s quite wonderful song and do that to it! It’s all bump ‘n’ grind nonsense with Glamma Kid banging on about hotspots or something. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, he encourages the audience to do that awful “ooh ooh” call and response thing before putting the turd flakes on this shit sandwich by getting them to wave their hands in the air. Away with you sir!

I’d forgotten that there was a third single from Blur’s “13” album. “Tender”? Yes, of course. “Coffee & TV”? Absolutely. “No Distance Left To Run”? Erm…that was the title of a documentary about them wasn’t it? Yes it was but it was also the closing track on the album (save for a two minute instrumental) that was released as its third and final single. It’s not an obvious choice for that role being a discordant, lo-fi song about the break up of Damon Albarn’s relationship with Justine Frischmann. Part of me thinks it should have been left alone to close out the album but alternatively, why shouldn’t the band push the boundaries and make their fanbase work a bit to appreciate all the facets of their heroes’ art?

“The quintessential 90s band” says Gail Porter in her outro. Not sure entirely what she meant by that. Yes, they’d been having hits for the whole of the decade but how could one band represent the whole of that era when so many movements and trends had come and gone in that period? In a move that suggested that Blur themselves wanted to get away from such descriptions, the band’s next release was a line-in-the-sand-drawing Best Of. Over the next 23 years though, they would release just three studio albums compared to six in eight years between 1991 and 1999. Maybe they were destined to be remembered as a 90s band?

And here it is. That most divisive of records and it came courtesy of a 59 year old man who had been having hits for five decades and who, for many, was the standard bearer for the music industry elite, a man so comfy and unthreatening that he was the antithesis of what a rock star should be. He only ever had sex once allegedly for chrissakes! And yet, as the new millennium dawned, Cliff Richard was suddenly anti-establishment and rallying against what was deemed acceptable he did it all without a trace of sex (obviously), drugs or rock ‘n’ roll.

The cause of this controversy was his hit “The Millennium Prayer” which was the words of The Lord’s Prayer set to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne”. That’s it. That’s what all the fuss was about. It seems odd in retrospect but so concerned about its lack of commercial appeal and accusations of exploiting people’s religious beliefs were Cliff’s record company EMI that they refused to release it (they had history when it came to losing their nerve in a controversy, for example their dropping of the Sex Pistols in 1977 following the Bill Grundy incident). As a result, Cliff took his bat and his ball (and “The Millennium Prayer”) and tuned up at independent label Papillon’s door and it was they who released it as a charity single with the proceeds going to Children’s Promise. The extreme reactions didn’t stop there though. George Michael no less described the song as a “heinous piece of music” and the campaign behind it as “vile”. Radio stations baulked at the track with BBC Radios 1 and 2, Capital FM’s sister station Capital Gold, and the Magic network of oldies stations all declining to put it on their playlists.

In the face of such opposition, how did it manage to debut at No 2 and spend three weeks at No 1 then? Well, you ignore Cliff’s fanbase at your peril. His legion of supporters and indeed Christian groups mobilised themselves to protest outside BBC offices and overwhelmed radio stations with requests to play it. Premier Radio, a Christian station, played “Millennium Prayer” regularly. The grassroots movement outstripped and outmanoeuvred conventional marketing strategy and the song became Cliff’s 14th chart topper of his career. The BBC in particular must have felt like they were tying themselves up in knots with its Radio stations largely ignoring it (the Top 40 chart show played it I think) but here he was on TOTP, their flagship music show, to perform the song. They even afforded him enough time for a small interview with Gail Porter who performed the whole “we’re not worthy” routine for good measure. And then there was the song, if indeed that’s what it was. Let’s have it right, George Michael nailed it. It was heinous. Abominable. Monstrously bad even. And yet who am I to tell punters they were wrong to buy it? However, does anyone listen to it now?

*checks Spotify plays*

Well, it’s been streamed 3 million times which seems like a lot but compared to his more traditional pop hits like “We Don’t Talk Anymore” (41 million plays) and “Devil Woman” (39 million)…Does it even get played on those all Christmas songs stations come December each year? Whatever its legacy, there will always be a bit of 1999 that belongs to Cliff and “The Millennium Prayer”.

It’s another case of third-single-from-the-album syndrome as, after Blur earlier, we get Texas now. “When We Are Together” was the third single lifted from fifth studio album “The Hush” and was the band’s first non Top 10 hit since “So In Love With You” struggled to a peak of No 28 in 1994. There’s no particular reason for this that I can fathom other than it was taken from an album that had been in the shops for six months by this point meaning many potential purchasers of the single could have already bought the album and have access to the track.

The song itself stuck to the formula that Texas had struck upon with the “White On Blonde” album with its Motown feel and radio friendly uptempo beat. If there were any concerns within the band’s camp that said formula was losing its potency, their next release in 2000 – their first Greatest Hits compilation – must surely have dispelled them as it topped the charts and went six times platinum. Interestingly, half the album’s 18 tracks were made up of songs from “White On Blonde” and “The Hush”.

We have yet another new No 1 this week in the form of Wamdue Project and their track “King Of My Castle”. I say ‘their’ but this was the work of one Chris Brann who sounds like a journeyman midfielder currently playing his trade in the Championship with West Brom but who was actually an American electronic music producer. “King Of My Castle” was originally released in 1997 and was a club hit without crossing over into chart action. However, a remix by Roy ‘Walterino’ Malone (I’ve no idea) saw it debut at No 1 in the UK charts and become a Top 5 smash just about everywhere else.

Now, there can’t have been too many hits that reference Sigmund Freud’s structural model of the psyche but this one did with its title referring to Freud’s comment of “the ego is not king of its own castle” when describing that the human ego is not free and is instead controlled by its own unconscious id. This was deep stuff we were talking. That being said, the track itself was pretty much the opposite of deep, to my ears anyway. A very basic house beat allied to some repetitive lyrics, it never seems to really get going and drifts about in the shallow end for its entirety. Maybe it was all to do with the bpm and you needed to be in a sweaty nightclub to appreciate it better.

There’s an amusing footnote to this particular story which is that Wamdue Project appeared on the initial nominations list for ‘Best British Newcomer’ at the 2000 Brit Awards only for embarrassed organisers to withdraw the name once they had realised that Brann is American. That must have dented their egos. Ahem.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Robbie Williams	She’s The One/Its Only Us	No
2	Whitney Houston	I Learned From The Best	Negative
3	Glamma Kid	Why	Certainly not
4	Blur	No Distance Left To Run	No but I had the album
5	Cliff Richard	The Millennium Prayer	Heavens above no!
6	Texas	When We Are Together	Nah
7	Wamdue Project	King Of My Castle	Nope

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002wz4f/top-of-the-pops-26111999

TOTP 19 NOV 1999

Posted on 6 Days Ago by 80stastic

This particular TOTP was broadcast on a very unusual date. Written as 19-11-1999, all the numbers are odd. The next all odd numbers day will be 1-1-3111 assuming quantified time still exists then. Just to even things up as it were, there was an even numbers day on 2-2-2000 which was the first one since 8-28-888! I wonder if any of the artists in the show have a connection with numbers (odd or even) apart from the obvious of chart positions and sales figures.

Our host is Gail Porter and we start with last week’s No 1 from Geri Halliwell. Yes, after all that fuss the previous week about the battle of who would top the chart between Geri and ex-band mate Emma Bunton, “Lift Me Up” is already down to No 4 after just seven days as we have a new No 1. So old hat is it after just a week that we don’t even get a new performance just a repeat of the first one. I posited the opinion in the last post that the track may not have been worthy of being a No 1 record which is, on the one hand, an asinine position to adopt as it garnered more sales than any other song that week and so was at the top of the charts by demonstrable merit. On the other though, the whole notion of judging the quality of records by how many copies they sell is ludicrous and the concept of a chart to rank them absurd. If we accept that hypothesis then we also believe in subjective musical taste which makes my original opinion of unworthiness perfectly sound and reasonable. It is based on the belief that “Lift Me Up” itself is a passable ballad but the issue with it is that Halliwell couldn’t really sing it properly. Tracks like her debut single “Look At Me” allowed her to almost speak the lyrics but there was no hiding place in a ballad with a soaring, uplifting chorus. Mind you, Mel C was always perceived as having the best singing voice of the Spice Girls and her latest song is criminally bad.

Numbers connection: During the height of her solo career, Geri notably wore a red string bracelet—a key practice in Kabbalah that assigns mystical and spiritual significance to numbers.

“I’m sure this band’s album will be filling a lot of stockings this Christmas. With their fourth hit from “The Man Who”, this is Travis” says Gail Porter in her intro to the next act and she was right on both points. I’ve told the tale before of how “The Man Who” saved the Our Price chain from going to the wall (allegedly) over the festive season of 1999. Such was its selling power that the buying department had to source copies of it from abroad which meant that the stock had some odd promotional stickers on it when it arrived in store. And yes, “Turn” was the fourth single taken from it. The FOURTH! There’s an interview where Noel and Liam Gallagher are talking about releasing “Cigarettes And Alcohol” as the fourth single from “Definitely Maybe” and Noel admits he wasn’t sure it was a good idea but then it became their then biggest hit when it charted.

I mention this as I wonder if there were similar reservations within the Travis camp about putting a fourth single into the shops. If so, they needn’t have worried as, just like Oasis, “Turn” became their highest charting single to this point when it peaked at No 8. Unlike their previous hits like “Driftwood” and “Why Does It Always Rain On Me”, this track was a heavier sound, almost anthemic you might say. In fact, it wouldn’t have sounded out of place on their rockier debut album “Good Feeling”. It’s a real slow builder but the pay off is worth it when you get there with hook of the chorus amplified by that guitar twang after the final “turn”. I don’t think I’d realised before that one of the verses is actually sung by bass player Dougie Payne and not Fran Healy or maybe they were messing around with vocal roles for the performance just like Oasis did for their TOTP run through of “Roll With It”. Travis would release their third album “The Invisible Band” in 2001 which, though it couldn’t match the commercial performance of “The Man Who”, still went a none too shabby four times platinum in the UK.

Numbers connection: Travis have released an album called “12 Memories” and one called “10 Songs”.

Here’s Riiiiicky! Yes, after a ‘new’ and indeed ‘exclusive” performance two weeks prior, Ricky Martin has banged into the charts with “Shake Your Bon-Bon” at…well…a rather underwhelming No 12 actually. It must have been a concern for Ricky, his label and his management after “Livin’ La Vida Loca” had been one of the biggest hits of 1999. Maybe it was deserved and the disappointment of the follow up had to be swallowed down as it was quite the stinker. The lyrics alone were awful, not just for the dreadful rhyming couplets but also because they were so inappropriate. If you thought ‘I’m a desperado, underneath your window, I see your silhouette, are you my Juliet?” was bad, how about rhyming ‘Himalayas’ with ‘I wanna lay ya’? Then there’s Ricky himself with his camcorder focusing in on the arses of his backing dancers. Really? Finally, surely a Bon-bon is a sweet not a backside? That would be a booty no? I guess what I’m saying is that I’m not prepared to turn the other cheek on this one.

Numbers connection: In 2012, a different Ricky Martin won Series 8 of The Apprentice, a TV show where the contestants are notoriously useless at formulating the financial predictions for their business plans and seem to have zero knowledge of the concept of profit and loss.

In early 2000, when I left my job of nearly a decade working in records shops, I struggled to adapt to my new life as a civil servant. The culture shock was seismic. However, one benefit that hadn’t figured in my decision-making but which I was grateful for was that I didn’t have to be involved in the rise and rise of A1. Yes, although “Everytime” was their third hit out of three releases and their biggest so far when it peaked at No 3, they had yet to reach their…dare I call it an ‘imperial phase’? Two consecutive No 1s and a No 2 arrived in the new millennium by which time I’d long since stopped following the charts and so could ignore their claims to be one of the biggest boybands around.

However, I couldn’t avoid this one which, inevitably, was a soppy ballad what with it being the third single as decreed by the 90s pop blueprint. Gail Porter bigs up their musicianship credentials in her intro by saying they play their own instruments but there’s only the guy on the piano as evidence of that here. There are screams aplenty for designated heartthrob Ben and his daft curtains hairstyle but it’s a lot of fuss about nothing as far as I’m concerned.

Numbers connection: A1? That’ll do won’t it? That’s more than they deserve.

After A1 have done their thing, we get an odd segue from the disembodied voice of Gail Porter which sounds like it was recorded in a BBC toilet rather than the Elstree studios and then were into the Will Smith video for “Will 2K” and, as usual, he introduces it himself with a personal message to camera. As with Ricky Martin earlier, we saw this weeks ago but it’s on again this time as it has debuted on the chart at No 2.

I checked on the excellent TOTP Archive website and it transpires that Will Smith never actually appeared in person at the BBC studio (either under his own name or The Fresh Prince persona) with all his performances either being the official promo video or from a completely separate venue via satellite. I presume he was too busy with his own filming schedules to hop over to the UK – from 1993 to 1999 he appeared in eight feature films. After all, that was one of the original purposes of the music video art form, to allow an artist to appear on promotional shows even if they couldn’t be there in person. Even so, 22 appearances over the years and not one trip to the studio does seem a bit like a smack in the mouth for the TOTP producers. Mind, he’s good at that isn’t he?

Numbers connection: In the 2015 film The Focus, Smith plays a con artist who bets millions against a billionaire. He has his partner randomly pick a football player’s jersey number from the field. If the billionaire chooses the same random player, Smith wins. If not, he loses everything. Unbeknownst to the victim, Smith spent the entire day priming him, subtly flashing the number 55 on posters, clothes and in music to guarantee that was the number he would choose.

After Scottish guitar band Travis earlier, here come some more Celtic rockers but this time from Wales. Now if Travis were pushing their luck with a fourth single released from their album, Stereophonics were possibly taking the piss by lifting “Hurry Up And Wait” as the fifth single from “Performance And Cocktails”. The FIFTH! This was approaching Michael Jackson territory!

I’m guessing this was down to their record label who surely wanted a single out as Christmas loomed to re-promote their artist’s album which had been out for nearly nine months by this point. For me though, it was easily the weakest of those five singles. A decent album track, that’s how it should have remained and I say that’s as someone who had “Performance And Cocktails”. What was more interesting though was the extra track on the CD single which was a cover of “Angie” by the Rolling Stones. They would return to cover versions in 2001 with their take on “Handbags And Gladrags”, a song which was already enjoying a high profile as the theme tune to The Office which was first broadcast that year.

Coincidentally, the aforementioned Travis also had a cover version as an extra track on their single…

Numbers connection: Their track “I Got Your Number” from their album “Scream Above the Sounds” heavily features a counting sequence (“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. You told me lies right to my face. I’ve got your number…”)

SUPERSTAR KLAXON! Prince is in the house (well, the studio – take note Will Smith!) except he isn’t as Prince didn’t exist at this time as he was still going under the moniker of an unpronounceable symbol aka The Artist Formerly Known As Prince aka The Artist and it’s the final nomenclature that Gail Porter uses in her intro. And he is actually there within a few feet of her not thousands of miles away being beamed into our living rooms via satellite. Wow!

So why was he there? Well, to promote something obviously which in November 1999 was his 23rd studio album “Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic” from which this track “Baby Knows” was taken. But here’s the thing – that song was never released as a single in the UK. According to the princevault.com website, it was available as a promotional release in Holland only. Given that, why did he turn up in person here to give exposure to a product we couldn’t buy? Yes, the album was out but UK audiences were definitely and defiantly not interested in Prince albums at this time shown by the album’s peak of No 145 over here. His last Top 10 album had been 1995’s “The Gold Experience” which included the No 1 “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World” but there was no such big hit for this album. In fact, the only single released from it was “The Greatest Romance Ever Sold” in October which had peaked at No 65. So why was Prince here now doing promotional duties in a country that was largely ignoring him? Apparently, it was part of a strategy to focus on Europe over the US in an attempt to increase his appeal in that territory but it seems flawed given the resulting sales. I can’t really understand the logic of promoting in the UK a single that could only be bought in Holland.

As for the song itself, it’s OK. A typical Prince funk work out that reminds me of “Cream” a bit but as a hook to hang the album on, it didn’t feel like it would bear much weight. Prince, as ever, is the consummate showman in this performance. I do like Prince – who doesn’t? – but my issue with him is the amount of material he turned out. There still loads in the Paisley Park vaults they’re still discovering isn’t there? With that volume of work, it couldn’t all be ‘A’ standard surely? That said, you can’t deny his legacy and standing as a musical legend so maybe ignore my previous comment eh?

Number connection: Prince on a show with a broadcast date of 19/11/1999? C’mon – this shizzle writes itself!

There’s another new No 1 (of course there is – this was 1999) and it’s from that man again – it’s Robbie Williams with his second chart topper following “Millennium” in 1998. Now, although the song that got all the airplay and which Robbie performs here was “She’s The One”, the single itself was actually a double A-side* with the new track “It’s Only Us”.

*I failed to mention it earlier but this was actually the second double A-side release featured on this particular show as A1’s “Everytime” was buddied up with “Ready Or Not” but frankly, who cares?

“She’s The One” is, of course, a cover version. The original was by the excellent World Party though I can’t be sure if I knew that at the time. One person who certainly didn’t was my Robbie loving younger sister who was amazed when, years later, I played her the original and she discovered that the Williams version was almost exactly the same. Given that and acknowledging that Karl Wallinger’s outfit only ever had two Top 40 hits and none bigger than No 19, it feels unfair that it took the gurning Williams to make it the hit it deserved to be all along.

Yes, that’s right, gurning. His performance here employs all his mannerisms and ticks that were starting to grate by now. The knowing nod that said “Yes, worship me. It’s what I deserve” and the cocky little spin of his microphone that articulated “Look at me, I can do anything and everything”. Was there nobody around him to put him back in his box at this point? Well, yes. There was his journeyman drummer Chris Sharrock who’d played with everyone from the Icicle Works to The La’s to The Lightning Seeds and crucially World Party on the album that “She’s The One” came from! He was in a perfect position to tell him to stay humble! I wish they’d shown the video with the ice skating plot instead as it’s actually quite endearing with the Barry Davies commentary and the line “difficult for the one looking on”.

As for “It’s Only Us”, I couldn’t actually tell you what it sounded like. Hang on…

Hmm. It’s not all that is it? Apparently, it was used as the theme for the computer game FIFA 2000 (hence all the computer graphics in the video) and therefore wasn’t on the “I’ve Been Expecting You” album. It’s almost a forgotten Robbie Williams hit in retrospect and perhaps that’s for the best. To give him credit, he’s still very much a recording artist 27 years and 10 more studio albums later with the latest being released in January of this year. Maybe he was the one after all.

Numbers connection: Robbie Williams has been open about having dyscalculia and experiences real anxiety dealing with numerical concepts, struggling with simple tasks like calculating restaurant tips.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Geri Halliwell	Lift Me Up	Nah
2	Travis	Turn	No
3	Ricky Martin	Shake Your Bon-Bon	Negative
4	A1	Every time / Ready Or Not	Never
5	Will Smith	Will 2K	Nope
6	Stereophonics	Hurry Up And Wait	No but I had the album
7	Prince (or whatever)	Baby Knows	N/A
8	Robbie Williams	She’s The One / It’s Only Us	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002wz4c/top-of-the-pops-19111999

TOTP 12 NOV 1999

Posted on 10 Days Ago by 80stastic

“England versus Scotland – the biggest clash since…ooh…Geri Versus Emma” proclaims host Jayne Middlemiss at the start of this particular TOTP thereby neatly summing up what was happening in the worlds of both sport and music in mid November 1999. The day after this show aired, the first leg of a play off between the English and Scottish national football teams took place to decide which nation would proceed to the 2000 European Championship tournament after both teams had finished as runners-up in their respective qualifying groups. England would win that first game in Scotland 2-0 thanks to a pair of goals from Paul Scholes and would ultimately go on to the finals in Belgium and the Netherlands despite losing the second leg four days later 0-1. I remember watching the first game in a bar in Manchester with a couple of friends and then watching perhaps the worst England display for years in the second leg on TV in our flat.

If England overcoming the auld enemy would have been the shortest odds outcome at the bookies, the battle between Geri Haliwell and her Spice Girls ex-band mate Emma Bunton was less easy to predict. Not quite up there with Oasis v Blur and the whole Battle of Britpop saga, it was still quite the pop music story as both artists released singles in the same week with both having eyes on the No 1 spot. There could be only one winner though and the result was announced almost immediately with the opening act (and therefore not this week’s chart topper) being Tin Tin Out and Emma Bunton with their version of “What I Am” which debuted at No 2.

So was this clash of release dates accidental or deliberately engineered? Certainly, the generated press coverage wouldn’t have done either protagonist any harm promotion-wise but then, would both have been guaranteed a No 1 if they’d have gone to market seven days apart? There was a train of thought which predicted a surefire win for Emma Bunton given that this was her first ever solo release which wasn’t available on anything else whereas the Geri Halliwell track was the third to be taken from her “Schizophonic” album which had already been in the shops for five months by this point. However, Geri had another ace up her sleeve which kept her on the front pages for a week which was an “are they or aren’t they?” tabloid frenzy about whether she was dating Chris Evans. That was convenient that the story broke that week. Hmm.

Anyway, in the final reckoning it was Geri who won out even though Emma had potentially the more interesting release. Working with electronic dance duo Tin Tin Out, the decision to cover Eddie Brickell And The Bohemians’ 1988 minor hit “What I Am” was sound. A familiar but not over saturated song that actually could potentially not have been known by the Spice Girls fanbase at all and therefore mistaken for a Bunton original. To say the track was a decade old, it translated pretty well into the pop climate of the very late 90s which is just as well as Tin Tin Out/Emma deliver a pretty faithful version. Bunton would get her No 1 in 2001 when she answered her own question with the single “What Took You So Long”.

So what do you do after one of your first hits is a global smash, your debut album is massive but the lead single from your sophomore collection doesn’t go down so well? You return to the formula of that initial worldwide hit of course. That’s certainly how it appeared with Savage Garden who had topped charts everywhere with “Truly Madly Deeply” but had found sales harder to come by for “The Animal Song” which trailed second album “Affirmation”. Time to bring out the big guns then and “I Knew I Loved You”, just like “Truly Madly Deeply”, was a huge, shimmering, harmonies-laden pop ballad.

However, it wasn’t quite a case of copy and paste though as Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones hadn’t recorded the track as part of their original submission of the album to record label Columbia who challenged the duo to come up with another “Truly Madly Deeply”. Although not keen to rinse and repeat, Hayes and Jones agreed that the album lacked a ballad and so “I Knew I Loved You” was written. It would go Top 10 in the UK but critically, in America, replicated the success of “Truly Madly Deeply” by going to No 1on the Billboard chart. So, who was vindicated? Those Columbia executives for insisting on another big ballad or Savage Garden themselves for coming up with it? I think those dastardly record label executives won the battle but their artist won the war with their stance that “Truly Madly Deeply” was a one-off song as its legacy surely outshines that of “I Knew I Loved You”.

Beck might not be the greatest singer in the world (as this TOTP performance demonstrates) but you can’t doubt his creativity. Seven studio albums in seven years by 1999 proves he had ideas in him that he wanted to get out there. Album No 7 was “Midnite Vultures” from which “Sexx Laws” was the lead single. If your only acquaintance with Beck was via 1994’s slacker anthem “Loser”, then this track must have blown your expectations out of the water although Jayne Middlemiss’s intro of “This next track has been described as LA Punk, Memphis Funk and Chicago Blues with Hawaiian guitar and a Mississippi banjo” should have given a clue that you were in for something different. Jayne failed to specifically mention the brass section that leads the number that was almost jaunty in nature. Subject-wise, as Tim Booth of James once sang, it “messed around with gender roles” and expectations of how the sexes behave. I’d forgotten how good it was to be honest and it deserved better than its No 27 chart peak.

One last thing – that spelling of ‘sex’ as ‘sexx’? It’s either a play on the age rating system (as in an x-rated film) or it signifies two X-chromosomes, thus saying nothing is wrong with same-sex relationships.

And so the brief time of Another Level was at an end – “Bomb Diggy” was their eighth and final hit. Clearly, I wasn’t the target audience for this lot but even allowing for that, I found their success inexplicable. This last chart entry was a case in point. It came over like an R’n’B nursery rhyme but with decidedly non children-friendly lyrics. Read this:

“You know it’s the bomb diggy diggy
When we get jigyy let my piggyback
Ride on it all night long (all night)
While I’m singing my song, all through the hoody hoodywanna get the goody goody
You know It’s the bomb diggy diggy bomb bomb diggy
Can I get some of your bomb diggy?
Jello jello goody chocolate puddy
Want to get a little bit of your goody goody
Oh goody goody”

Songwriters: Dwight Reynolds

Bomb Diggy lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Now in her intro (and outro), Jayne Middlemiss says she doesn’t know what the song is about. Really Jayne?! “When we get jigyy let my piggyback, ride on it all night long”?! Come on! We all know what he’s singing about there don’t we?! I can only assume she was being ironic or deliberately obtuse. As for the phrase “Bomb Diggy”, apparently it’s a combination of two 90s slang terms – “The Bomb” and “Diggity” (derived from the older phrase “hot diggity dog!“) Then, of course, there’s also “no diggity“ (meaning “without a doubt”), which was popularized by the 1996 R&B song by Blackstreet. I’m not really interested in any of this but maybe you are and I’m nothing if not concerned with public service.

It’s Jenny from the Block! Not that anyone called her that yet as that particular song wouldn’t be released for another three years. In 1999, Jennifer Lopez was just two singles and one album into her discography with that second single being “Waiting For Tonight”. More of a pop tune than her debut hit “If You Had My Love”, it did the job of consolidating her image as a singer rather than purely an actress when it was another big hit. Although we get an in person, studio performance here, the accompanying music video followed in the footsteps of Will Smith by pursuing a Y2K theme and specifically the millennium bug element. At a New Year’s Eve party, there is a power outage as the clock strikes midnight and everyone is plunged into darkness but it comes back on after a couple of moments because…well, it wouldn’t have been much of a music video if it didn’t I guess.

Going back to that TOTP appearance though, clearly a wind machine must have been installed at the front of the stage but off camera judging by how the Lopez locks were tossing about. Bizarrely, the performance is intercut with images of Jennifer from the video with lots of shots of her armpits. Given the aforementioned wind machine, am I the only one getting Madonna “Into The Groove”/ Desperately Seeking Susan vibes?

WHOOOO?! Who on earth was Mr. Vegas?! Well, he wasn’t Johnny’s Dad but apart from that I haven’t a clue. Zero memory of this so…

*googles Me. Vegas*

…he’s a Jamaican dancehall singjay (a style of vocals combining toasting and singing) who was born Clifford Smith who came to prominence in the late 90s, picking up a MOBO award and airplay for his track “Heads High”. When legendary reggae label Greensleeves got involved and gave it an official release, the Top 40 awaited. I can’t say it does much for me but at least he was a genuine artist unlike, I don’t know, Shaggy who always seemed like a grifter to me. On a nostalgic note, the name Greensleeves conjures up memories of the record distributor Jet Star who handled the label’s product. When working for Our Price, if I ever had to ring up Jet Star to place orders for the shop, the telesales guys on the phone lines were always so sound and laid back, like they were just chilling rather than at work and I always imagined them either about to blaze up or already with reefer in hand. They were different times.

Not sure I remember this charity single. Artists For Children’s Promise anyone? This collective of pretty big names from the world of music (plus a couple of actors) added their own personal contributions to a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)” to spearhead a campaign backed by Marks and Spencer to encourage UK citizens to donate the value of their final hour’s earnings before the millennium which would be split between seven children’s charities. It wasn’t a major hit, peaking at No 19 but you can’t doubt its intentions.

Right, so if you’ve watched the video, how many artists did you recognise? I think I got most of them though there’s a few on the list in its Wikipedia entry that I didn’t see. Maybe they were blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos or perhaps we didn’t see the entire promo? A few things did pique my interest though. Why did the Spice Girls get their own shouted intro mid song before adding their vocals? Nobody else did. Then there’s the lines about “suicide right on the stage” and “teenage lust” – could they be deemed controversial in a song designed to raise money for children’s charities or am I being overly sensitive? Finally, I’m not sure the contributions of Robin Williams and Eric Idle really added anything entertaining, big names or not.

And so to the winner of the chart battle of the Spice Girls as we witness Geri Halliwell bag her second consecutive No 1. I have to say that, listening back to “Lift Me Up”, it’s a fairly innocuous track. Not unpleasant but hardly outstanding and, remembering that musical opinion is subjective, possibly not deserving of topping the chart. Remember, musical opinion is subjective! That wind machine was obviously in use again here and although Geri covers her armpits up, I’m not sure why she performs in a bra.

So do you think Geri and Emma Bunton were in the studio together and if so, what would they have said to each other? Well, disappointingly, I don’t think they were. My evidence? Well, judging by the long outro shot segueing from Emma opening the show into the next act, Jayne Middlemiss was clearly in the actual studio at the same time but when she introduces Geri, she clearly isn’t due to the green screen effect going on behind her indicating that Halliwell’s performance was pre-recorded not in the presence of our host. Oh well.

Geri would come up trumps with a third consecutive No 1 early in 2000 with “Bag It Up” and then a fourth a year later with a cover of The Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men” before the hits became smaller and then dried up altogether. She would rejoin the Spice Girls in 2007 for a number of reunion dates and again in 2019 for their fourth and so far last concert tour.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I like it?
1	Tin Tin Out / Emma Bunton	What I Am	Nope
2	Savage Garden	I Knew I Loved You	Nah
3	Beck	Sexx Laws	Good song but no
4	Another Level	Bomb Diggy	Never
5	Jennifer Lopez	Waiting For Tonight	No
6	Mr. Vegas	Head High	I did not
7	Artists For Children’s Promise	It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)	Negative
8	Geri Halliwell	Lift Me Up	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002wnjr/top-of-the-pops-12111999

TOTP 05 NOV 1999

Posted on 14 Days Ago by 80stastic

What a strange beast TOTP had become by the end of the 90s. Just look at the running order for this show. It’s all over the place. A boyband, a Latin superstar, an American post-grunge band but perhaps most startlingly, two undeniably huge names yet whom, let’s be honest, it was a shock that they were still having hits. I’ll get to them in due course but our host is Jamie Theakston (yet again) and we start with an artist who is on the show for the fourth time in five weeks. The incremental rise of “I Try” by Macy Gray was remarkable not just for its longevity nor its rallying against chart tides and trends by often being the only record in the Top 40 climbing but also because, given this level of TOTP exposure (allied with, no doubt, mammoth airplay), surely it would have expected a higher chart peak than No 6? I presume it couldn’t compete with strongly promoted new releases that were aided by week one price discounting whilst it would have been selling at full price. Sometimes though the tortoise truly does beat the hare and “I Try” would become the 20th best selling single of 1999 despite having the lowest chart peak of any of the hits in that end of year Top 50 and ahead of fourteen No 1 records. Macy not only tried, she succeeded.

The first of those two massive names now that despite their incredibly successful and long careers, you were still surprised that they could achieve a chart hit in 1999. If the 80s had been a golden period for Phil Collins both as a solo artist and as a member of Genesis, then the 90s were more like that scene from Blackadder II where Lord Percy tries his had at alchemy but instead of creating gold discovers the secret of green…

OK, it maybe wasn’t that bad but the truth is that in the 80s, the four studio albums Collins released went five, three, six and nine times platinum respectively in the UK alone whilst his two albums from the 90s achieved double platinum and gold certification. To rub salt into the wound, the 1998 Best Of “…Hits” went six times platinum and there were only two of his 90s singles included in a track listing totalling 16 songs. Singles-wise, Phil had ten Top 10 hits in the 80s including three No 1s (albeit two were with cover versions). The 90s? A by pair of No 7s and a No 9. That’s it for Top 10 hits. Against that background, it’s perhaps surprising he had another chart hit in him at all but then “You’ll Be In My Heart” did have the added impetus of being from a Disney motion picture namely Tarzan, an animated feature retelling the Greystoke legend. Its soundtrack was a mixture of Collins originals and instrumental scores with the lead single released from it winning an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song. Of course, it wasn’t the first time a huge star had been employed to write the music for a Disney film – Elton John had helped to make The Lion King a gargantuan success in 1994. Whilst not matching those sort of numbers, Tarzan was a critical and commercial hit and achieved a first that even The Lion King didn’t – it was the first Disney soundtrack to be recorded in multiple languages for different markets with Collins also recording French, German, Italian and Spanish versions. It also broke tradition by not having the lead characters perform the songs but rather had Phil do them himself via his role as the film’s narrator.

Despite all of the acclaim the film attracted, “You’ll Be In My Heart” was very much a Phil-by-numbers ballad the like of which he could turn out in his sleep and probably did. I’ve never seen the film so the song might be more affecting if listened to in the context of its scene in the movie I guess but still. It could have featured on any of his solo albums in the track listing slot named ‘insert ballad here’. Collins would renew his Disney association in 2003 by co-writing the soundtrack to Brother Bear. In 1999 though, this would be Phil’s last TOTP appearance of 47 as a solo artist.

After a decent quip in his last intro (“Jungle sounds next and I’m not talking drum ‘n’ bass. Oh no. Big up the jungle. It’s massive. It’s Phil Collins.”), Jamie Theakston breaks the golden rule when introducing the next artist by not referring to her by her official title. Surely everyone knows that Diana Ross has to be introduced as “Miss Diana Ross”? Jamie doubles down on that faux pas by saying that she has “big hair”! I mean, he did say that she’s the most successful female artist ever but not announcing her properly was like not observing royal etiquette. Fortunately, she isn’t there in the studio with Theakston as she seems to have pre-recorded her performance at an earlier time. She is, of course, that other huge name on the show that somehow was still having hits as the new millennium approached which felt like an anomaly. Said hit was “Not Over You Yet” which somehow managed to go Top 10 despite being an entirely lame attempt to make her seem credible by giving the track a laboured and hackneyed house beat underneath it. I’m with Kitty Empire of the NME who reviews it thus:

“Some grown-up housey garagey disco-y nonsense that’s really of no great consequence.”

The single was taken from Miss Diana Ross’s 22nd studio album called “Every Day Is A New Day” which was the final contractual album released during her second Motown tenure. The album didn’t pull up any trees chart wise despite a bucket load of promotional activity including an ITV special An Audience With Diana Ross* and an American TV film in ABC called Double Platinum starring Miss Diana Ross and Brandy as mother and daughter singing stars and featured four songs from each of their most recent albums. As with Phil Collins, this would be her final proper TOTP appearance excluding repeated past performances in anniversary shows.

*Somebody at ITV no doubt got fired for the omission of the word ‘Miss’ in that title

It’s the return of Ian Brown next who has resumed his career after spending two months in Strangeways Prison after being convicted of threatening behaviour towards a flight attendant in an air rage incident in 1998. Bizarrely, this links to Miss Diana Ross who had her own flight controversy in this year when, attempting to board a Concorde flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to New York, she set off a metal detector. A female security guard conducted a manual pat-down that Miss Diana Ross felt was far too intimate. Upset and feeling humiliated, she reportedly touched the guard’s breast and asked, “How do you like it?” Police removed Miss Diana Ross from the aircraft, detained her for five hours, and eventually issued a caution without filing formal charges.

Anyway, back to Ian Brown and he used that time he spent at Her Majesty’s pleasure to write songs for his second solo album “Golden Greats”. Its lead single was “Love Like A Fountain” and whilst it’s got a pretty funky backbone, it’s hard to get past Brown himself on the track and in this actual performance. His vocals have long been pilloried but the quaver displayed here suggests that they were being stretched so far they might snap. Then there’s the lyrics which are basically a simple exercise in rhyming words so we get ‘mountain-fountain’, “ocean-lotion” and ‘fiction-crucifixion’. It just doesn’t scream substance to me at all.

To try and add some interest, stop start visual effects have been added giving the whole performance a shaky, jagged look but nothing can distract from the truth that Brown is just marching on the spot. Was that just playing up to the whole pimp’s limp image? Though well received critically, “Golden Greats” would be the lowest charting solo album of Brown’s career.

Two divas on the same show! After Miss Diana Ross earlier, here’s the ‘Songbird Supreme’ herself Mariah Carey! It’s a diva duel! Now, whatever your opinion of Mariah, nobody can deny how prolific she was in the recording studio. “Rainbow” was her seventh album in nine years. After she’d gone off in a more urban direction with her last album “Butterfly”, Mariah decided there was no looking back, pushed the pedal to the floor and headed off at speed down the hip-hop highway. The lead single from “Rainbow” was “Heartbreaker” which featured Jay-Z – see, she wasn’t messing about with this urban tip – but was also, in the traditional style of her new album openers, an uptempo number based around a sample. Indeed, despite her R&B aspirations, the track received criticism for sticking to her ‘lead single formula’ with the music press comparing it unfavourably with “Fantasy” from the “Daydream” album and “Honey” from “Butterfly” on the grounds of being unoriginal. To me though, the hook of the chorus sounds like another of Mariah’s lead singles – “Dreamlover” from “Music Box”.

Another indication that she hadn’t left behind everything she’d made her name on was the presence on the album of ballads. Of course there were ballads. Where “Music Box” had “Hero” and “Without You” and “Daydream” had “One Sweet Day” (with Boyz II Men), “Rainbow” had “Thank God I Found You” (with 98 degrees) and “Against All Odds” a cover of the Phil Collins hit that was released as a single with Westlife*.

*Mariah did seem to have a thing about boybands.

The album sold well enough* but nowhere near the numbers of her imperial phase releases. Despite Jamie Theakston’s claim that Mariah was the decade’s most successful female artist (don’t tell Miss Diana Ross he said that), it seemed that as the 90s ended, that status would not continue into the new millennium.

*Certainly not 120 million copies as Theakston says in his outro. He must have meant career sales.

It’s time for that American post-grunge band now though I’m not sure that description is really correct or even relevant. Rock/pop is surely a better tag but that’s what Wikipedia describes them as. “Closing Time” is Semisonic’s calling card around the world but here in the UK, we knew the band from their hit “Secret Smile”. Though it was featured on two episodes of TOTP, we didn’t see either of them due to the Gouryella racial caricature issue which is a shame as it’s a fine track. However, for me, it is eclipsed by the more upbeat “Closing Time”. I really like this one for a number of reasons. That hook in the chorus for a start which is the guitar lick sound that puts me in mind of the crunch of the power riff on Radiohead’s “Creep” (but less intense) or that ringing, up-down-up refrain in “She Sells Sanctuary” by The Cult. Then there’s the harmonising in the second verse which fits perfectly. However, the best thing about it is that the chords are straightforward and repeated throughout meaning even I can strum along on my guitar.

Although it sounds like a musical version of “Time gentlemen please”, the lyrics are also a metaphor for child birth according to frontman Dan Wilson. Somebody who totally misunderstood what it was all about was Karoline Leavitt the White House press secretary and whoever is the admin for the official White House Twitter/X account who posted a video in March 2025 of an undocumented person getting arrested, featuring lines from the song. When questioned about its usage at a press conference, she responded like this:

Dear God! The glee in her voice as she trots out that lyric! Just vile. The band themselves shared my horror by issuing this statement to the press:

“We did not authorize or condone the White House’s use of our song in any way, and no, they didn’t ask. The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely.”

“‘Closing Time’: Semisonic React to their single being used as anti-immigrant propaganda.”Rolling Stone, Bernstein, Jonathan (March 17, 2025).

Quite. Anyway, I don’t know why “Closing Time” wasn’t a bigger hit in the UK. Its chart peak of No 25 seems underserved. Did it not get enough airplay? I’m not sure why that would be the case as it was a huge airplay hit in the US topping many a chart. If for nothing else, we should all have bought it for this extra track on the CD single, a cover of “Air That I Breathe” which is the missing link between The Hollies and Radiohead. I knew I was onto something with that reference to “Creep” before.

Jamie Theakston is full of superlatives tonight. After blowing smoke up the arses of Miss Diana Ross and Mariah Carey earlier, this time he’s proclaiming that Ricky Martin is the most successful pop act on the planet. Was he? Sure, he was huge with Latin audiences and had just had a global No 1 with “Livin’ La Vida Loca” but that was quite the statement for our host to make and an unsubstantiated one if the chart success of follow up “Shake Your Bon-Bon” was anything to go by. A No 12 hit in the UK after your last single was one of the biggest sellers of the year can only be seen as a disappointment.

Why did it not hit home like its predecessor? It’s just not got the same charm or should I say novelty appeal plus there was some confusion over its release date which didn’t help promotionally. It does have that sexual innuendo that Ricky traded on and indeed, I could imagine “Shake Your Bon-Bon” being sung by Tom Jones (he should have released it as a follow up to “Horny”). The recording of his backing dancers’ rears on a camcorder (Bon-Bon or not) would rightly be judged less than socially acceptable these days. Martin would return with bigger hits in 2000 but his mainstream success does seem to have dissipated though he can still rely on his Latin fanbase for a hit even today.

It’s yet another new No 1 as Five finally get their time at the top with the release of their seventh single “Keep On Movin’”. Of those six previous hits, three had debuted tantalisingly short at No 2. My God, there’s a lot of numbers in those two (there’s another!) sentences. That run of No 2s was too much temptation for Jamie Theakston to resist and he makes the resulting gag. It’s not big and it’s not clever which you could also say about “Keep On Movin’” in that it wasn’t an obvious No 1 any more so than any of their other hits with the exception of “Everybody Get Up” which was boyband magnificence. However, it was an upbeat, catchy, daytime friendly (albeit lacking in substance) pop tune that presumably the release of which had been carefully timed to ensure that Five didn’t miss out again. And miss out they did not meaning they could join the elite ranks of Take That, Boyzone and Westlife as boybands with No 1s. I’m not sure though that “Keep On Movin’” really cut through like say a “Back For Good”, a “No Matter What” or a “Flying Without Wings”. Still, a No 1 is a No 1 and Five finally had one which would soon become two when their version of “We Will Rock You” topped the charts in 2000 and then three when they did it again with “Let’s Dance” in 2001 and that really is enough numbers for one (oops!) post.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Macy Gray	I Try	Liked it, didn’t buy it
2	Phil Collins	You’ll Be In My Heart	Never
3	Miss Diana Ross	Not Over You Yet	No thanks
4	Ian Brown	Love Like A Fountain	Nah
5	Mariah Carey	Heartbreaker	Nope
6	Semisonic	Closing Time	Where’s my copy of this? Surely I bought it!
7	Ricky Martin	Shake Your Bon-Bon	No thanks
8	Five	Keep On Movin’	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002wnjp/top-of-the-pops-05111999

TOTP 29 OCT 1999

Posted on 19 Days Ago by 80stastic

This is yet another episode where the running order looks like it’s going to be a struggle to get through. Again. However, it could have been worse than it already is but more of that later. Our host is Jamie Theakston (again) and as it’s two days before Halloween, expect him to roll out a few related quips along the way. We start with a repeat of that ‘exclusive’ Tina Turner performance from last week of her new single “When The Heartache Is Over” as executive producer Chris Cowey wasn’t going to allow that to be a one and done moment. It had gone straight into the chart at No 10 in his defence but I still don’t like the idea of a song being on the show twice just seven days apart unless it was the No 1. It’s my age I think.

I didn’t know this until now but Tina performed this song in an episode of Ally McBeal. I’d long since stopped watching the show by the time of Tina’s cameo but apparently the whole plot of the episode was about winning a competition to be one her backing dancers. Ally wins of course but how would she have fitted in with Tina’s actual dancers in this TOTP performance? Well, if they could make space for Kat Slater from EastEnders then…

What’s that Theakston? “This next bloke could be the most musical member of government we’ve had in years”? Who was he talking about? Well, it was Mick Hucknall who, back in 1999, was a high profile supporter of the New Labour movement and was invited to exclusive government functions and had joined a government advisory panel called the Music Industry Forum which the press had picked up on. Around this specific time, Hucknall was rumoured to be aligning himself with Ken Livingstone as the then-Greater London Council leader and considered launching his own independent run for London Mayor. I think that’s everything covered…oh except for why Theakston introduces the performance as being by Mick Hucknall and not Simply Red despite the fact that it was to promote the single “Ain’t That A Lot of Love” which was officially released under the latter moniker. Oh well.

This was the first single from the band’s seventh studio album “Love And The Russian Winter” which, although a platinum seller, continued the downward sales trend since the mammoth “Stars” in 1991. The song itself was actually a cover version of a Northern Soul track originally recorded by Homer Banks. As with “Fairground” from four years previous, an in vogue dance backing was added to it but whereas that 1995 No 1 utilised “Give It Up” by The Goodmen, “Ain’t That A Lot Of Love” utilised “The Music Sounds Better With You” by Stardust. Hucknall gives it his usual over-emoting treatment but its peak of No 14 suggested that maybe, after 15 years of Mick-ness, the British record buying public was started to tire of him. As I come to the end of this blog, I’m coming across more and more final appearances by artists in terms of me having to review them and Simply Red are on that list. I can’t say I’m not relieved.

Here’s another artist making their final appearance in my blog but that really isn’t the story here as Eternal were actually onto their actual last TOTP hurrah. Yes, having gone from a quartet to a trio after the departure of Louise, their sacking of Kéllé Bryan meant it was now just the duo of the Bennett sisters Easther and Vernie. That proved to be a loss of a group member one too many. Their fanbase clearly didn’t want Eternal as just a pair and their final eponymously titled album peaked at a lowly No 87 on the chart. To think that their previous release – a Greatest Hits collection – had gone triple platinum in the UK and been the ninth best selling title of 1997. However, the only single from “Eternal” – “What’cha Gonna Do” – was a hit, albeit their lowest ever charting when it debuted at No 16. A much more straight R&B sound, its performance here saw lead vocalist Easther having to do much more dance moves than she’d ever been required to previously. I guess she couldn’t have just stood there whilst Vernie leapt about the stage behind her. That would have looked a bit odd.

In 2000, after poor album sales, plans for a new Eternal single were scrapped and the sisters were released from their contract with EMI. Somewhat bizarrely, their final TV appearance was on Songs Of Praise. Thirteen years later, the group (minus Louise) took part in ITV’s The Big Reunion culminating in a live show at the Hammersmith Apollo. In 2023, a full line up reunion and tour was announced but Louise and Kéllé backed out after the Bennett sisters refused to perform at LGBTQ Pride events. In 2024, new member Christel Lakhdar was announced and the group performed a number of live gigs. They are yet to release any new music.

As the end of the century drew nearer, aside from the question of “What are you doing for New Year’s Eve?” having exceedingly more importance attached to it than normal and what odds could you get on Prince’s “1999” being No 1 as the new millennium dawned, there was another more serious issue occupying some of our thoughts – the Y2K Bug. In hindsight, the concerns that were raised about this seem excessive but at the time it was a cause for definite nay existential concern. I’m not afraid to say that I, for one, was caught up in the whole doomsday scenario. In my defence, I was dog tired from working my tenth consecutive Christmas in a record shop when the only time off I had in about two weeks was Christmas Day itself and so my rational thought processes weren’t functioning properly. As such, I became increasingly worried about traffic lights not working and planes falling out of the sky as the day approached. In the end, the fear that when the clock struck midnight on January 1 2000, computers would interpret the date as “1900,” potentially causing worldwide infrastructure collapse, financial chaos, and power outages failed to materialise, mainly due to a massive global effort by engineers and IT workers who preemptively fixed the code. Ah, so it wasn’t all just unfounded hysteria.

Cashing in on all of this though was Will Smith who released the single “Will 2K” from his album “Willennium”. Yeah, he really was going in hard on this theme. Obviously it was another rap/pop mash up, this time incorporating a sample from “Rock The Casbah” by The Clash. As much as the idea of that might have upset the purists, it actually works OK. Not amazing but OK. Will weighs into the whole Millennium bug debate with these lyrics questioning what might unfold as New Year’s Eve flowed into New Year’s Day:

“What’s gonna happen?
Don’t nobody know
We’ll see when the clock gets to 12-0-0
Chaos, the cops gonna block the street
Man who the hell cares?
Just don’t stop the beat”

Songwriters: Bob Hope Robinson / Cedric R. Hailey / Darren T. Henson / Joe Strummer / Lennie Dejuan Bennett / Mick Jones / Topper Headon / Willard C. Smith

Will 2K lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group

He clearly didn’t share my apocalyptic fears then. What he did share was yet another personal message introducing his video. However, for this one, inexplicably, it appears in the middle of the promo. Why? Why not have it as an intro? Surely that makes the most sense no? Maybe I’m just not creative enough to appreciate the artistic licence on display? “Will 2K” maintained Smith’s run of big hit singles when it missed the top spot by one place giving him a chart track record over his last five single releases of 3 – 2 – 3 – 2 – 2.

Remember Adeva? Yeah you do. American house music artist who had a string of hits in the late 80s three of which all curiously peaked at No 17. She had an image that was a bit Grace Jones-esque. No? Well, in 1999 she was back. Sort of. Her debut single “In And Out Of My Life” (which didn’t chart) was reactivated a decade later when producer Aydin Hasirci noticed that it fitted perfectly with the Fat Boy Slim track “Right Here, Right Now” and mashed the two together. The usual bootleg copies scenario played out (and indeed were played in clubs across the country) before Norman Cook himself became aware of it and sanctioned an official release. The result was A.T.F.C. Presents Onephatdeeva who got to No 11 with the track. Yes, it’s a bit of a mouthful but it could have been worse without the acronym which stands for Aydin The Funki Chile.

I can’t say I recall this at all and it does little for me listening to it now. However, I am intrigued by the performance here or more specifically who the singer on stage is here? Is that Adeva? She’s changed a bit if it is her. I asked AI and it suggested Juliet Roberts but I don’t think it’s her. Any ideas out there gratefully received. I thank you (ahem).

At the top of the post, I suggested that although the running order for this show looked like it might be hard to get through, it could, in fact, have been worse. How so? Well, one of the songs from the original broadcast has been edited out of this repeat – “If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time” by R. Kelly. I don’t need to go into the reasons why as I’m sure we all know but it does raise the question of why all the other such offending performances from previous repeats have not been similarly removed rather than just not broadcasting the whole show which has happened multiple times in the past. It can’t have been that hard to do surely? The edit here is pretty seamless. Have BBC4 given in to the clamour from the TOTP online community at last?

Right, here comes Destiny’s Child with another hit from their “The Writing’s On The Wall” album. “Bug A Boo” would make No 9 in our chart after “Bills Bills Bills” has peaked at No 6 and “No No No” No 5 (that’s a lot of Nos in that sentence!). All sizeable hits though not stratospheric – it was sort of like the sparklers phase of Bonfire Night before the fireworks show. Come the new millennium hits like “Independent Women”, “Survivor” and “Bootylicious” would see the group go supernova.

As for “Bug A Boo”, it was never going to be my bag but it did seem to be not that dissimilar to those previous hits and it’s not aged well with references to pagers and emails in the lyrics. Technology referencing songs are anchored in the era they were made in and probably best avoided. So what is a Bug A Boo? I took it to be someone who bugs you and won’t leave you alone but online search results tell me it is another name the bogeyman or an irrational fear. It is also the name of a popular Dutch design company known for making strollers and other baby gear. It’s not a great anecdote but hey, I told you this running order was going to be hard work to get through!

Interestingly, although R. Kelly was edited out of this repeat, the recently sacked by the BBC Scott Mills made the cut in that his narration of the Top 20 countdown remains. Hmm.

Anyway, we have a new No 1 which was the 30th of the year meaning 1999 had more new chart toppers than any other year in chart history and there would be another six before 2000 arrived. The 30th was the third consecutive No 1 for Westlife and is perhaps their best known song? “Flying Without Wings” kind of set a new template for boyband ballads in terms of its polished production and epic sound. It was always going to continue their run of chart toppers which would extend to seven and eventually total fourteen!

Watching this performance, I’m struck by something rather extraordinary – no, not that they aren’t all sat on stools for once but that halfway through, there is a flash of blinding white light and when that has subsided and our eyes have refocused, the boys who were once wearing black outfits, are now decked out in dazzling all white togs. How did they do this?! Were they magicians as well as a boyband? Was David Copperfield lurking backstage pulling off this stunt? They must have filmed it in two parts surely with a costume change in between recordings.

“Flying Without Wings” would also become associated with another teen heartthrob three years later when Gareth Gates sang it at his audition for the first ever series of Pop Idol. However, my point of reference is rather more sombre and symbolic – a version of it was played at the funeral of an ex-work colleague’s wife and said version was by a choir that her youngest son had sung with. Sometimes pop music really does have a power and resonance that belies its ephemeral nature.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Tina Turner	When The Heartache Is Over	No thanks
2	Simply Red	Ain’t That A Lot Of Love	Simply no
3	Eternal	What’cha Gonna Do	I did not
4	Will Smith	Will 2K	Negative
5	A.T.F.C. Presents Onephatdeeva	In And Out Of My Life	Nah
6	Destiny’s Child	Bug A Boo	Nope
7	Westlife	Flying Without Wings	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002wbq8/top-of-the-pops-29101999

TOTP 22 OCT 1999

Posted on 21 Days Ago by 80stastic

The TOTP Tour is officially over as the renovations to the BBC Elstree studios have now been completed and the show is back in its official home. Host Jamie Theakston makes a half-hearted attempt at a skit to mark the event and then we’re into the music. Apart from one ‘new’ exclusive performance from a legendary name, every hit in this episode comes from within the Top 10. Was that a good thing or not? On the one hand, the programme was showcasing the biggest selling, most popular songs of the time so wasn’t that giving music fans what they wanted? On the other, was it becoming a closed shop, excluding anything further down the charts and thus helping to stultify the rest of the Top 40 by denying potentially bigger songs the oxygen of exposure? A closer inspection of the chart that week reveals that there were indeed seven new entries outside of the Top 10* (plus one re-entry) and four inside it. Significantly, there was only one song going up the charts which perhaps restricted the choice of hits to be feature on the show. Perhaps.

*One of which was “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?” by Moby from his all conquering “Play” album. Executive producer Chris Cowey not exactly following the zeitgeist there.

So, which were the three songs inside the Top 10 that didn’t make the running order?

“Two Times” by Ann Lee. Holding at No 2. On TOTP the previous week.
“Blue (Dab Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65. Down from No 3 to No 4. On TOTP three weeks on the trot.
“Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” by Shania Twain. Down from No 6 to No 10. On TOTP twice.

OK. So firstly, they’re all horrible but secondly, apart from potentially Ann Lee, I can see why they weren’t featured on this show but what of the other seven hits in the Top 10 that were? Four were new entries (fair enough), one was the No 1 (double fair enough), one was the only single moving up the charts (can’t argue with that) BUT…one was going down the chart from No. 4 to No 8! What gives?

Well, all in good time but we start with the only record that was climbing which was “I Try” by Macy Gray. This one was really ascending in instalments. After debuting at No 10, it spent a second week there before inching its way to No 9 in this chart. After a further hop up of one place to No 8 it would make it to No 7 where it stayed for three weeks before yet another one place climb to a high of No 6 before one final week inside the Top 10 at No 9. That totalled over two months between No 10 and No 6 without ever making it into the Top 5. Even its descent out of the Top 40 took a further nine weeks which included two occasions when it reversed its fall and went back up the charts! As first week discounting by record companies on new release singles kicked in towards the end of the 90s, it felt like every hit was in and out of the charts within a fortnight. Slow burners like “I Try” (and a few others) offered evidence that wasn’t exclusively the case. However, it could also be argued that such examples were the exception that proved the rule – witness Macy Gray being the only artist moving up the charts this week.

Next to that song sliding down the charts but which was given a slot in the running order anyway. Was there anything to be said in defence of Chris Cowey’s decision here? Well, actually there was and it came from the mouth of host Jamie Theakston who rather patronisingly says in his intro to “Jesse Hold On” by B*Witched that “Little Keavey was ill last week bless her so she couldn’t make it on tour to Swansea but she’s back on her feet now…”. Oh OK, so the group should have been on last week when they debuted at No 4 which would have made sense and there was a genuine reason why they weren’t but…does this incident reveal more about the machinations of the TOTP selection process than we were previously aware of? Is this evidence of binding agreements between the show and artists’ management/record labels when it came to appearances? If you could literally provide a sick note then your booking would still apply for the following week regardless of where your record was in the charts? Like tickets for a concert still being valid if said gig was unexpectedly cancelled? Seems a bit rum to me.

Anyway, this delayed appearance by B*Witched didn’t stop “Jesse Hold On” from falling down the charts again the following week from No 8 to No 13 (though it did stay in that position for a second week). The perceived wisdom is that this is where it all started to fall apart for the group and I don’t think that’s an unfair assessment. Much in the same way that Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s spell over us broke when their “Welcome To The Pleasuredome” single failed to top the charts after three successive No 1s, so B*Witched’s…well…bewitching power over the record buying public began to wane when “Jesse Hold On” couldn’t reach the chart summit. Not that a No 4 hit should be dismissed but how else could anyone view it other than a step backwards?

So why did it not go to No 1 like the rest of the group’s releases? Had their cheeky Irish appeal worn off? Had pop music tastes changed so quickly already? I think the answer might be more straightforward – “Jesse Hold On” just wasn’t that good. In effect, it was a retread of “C’est La Vie” but instead of that Irish fiddle hook it had a banjo being picked and a C&W vibe. Whilst undeniably catchy, it didn’t have that same grab-you-by-your-ears effect. Sure, there’s some nice harmonising in the chorus but it somehow feels elongated and repetitive. In short, it just wasn’t as punchy – not so much “fight like me Da” more “have a reasonable discussion like me Ma”.

It also didn’t lend itself to that knockout image of double denim and Irish dance steps. This time there were sparkly, sleeveless crop tops with a bit of C&W fringing and some hip wiggling and half-arsed lassoing arm movements. It just didn’t have the same impact. Their sophomore album “Awake And Breathe” also suffered from diminishing returns selling half the amount of their debut. Neither of its two subsequent singles even made the Top 10. The time of B*Witched (at least their first incarnation) was coming to an end.

OK. I get the whole “don’t fix it if it ain’t broken” concept when it comes to chart hits and a successful formula but ATB were taking a liberty. “Don’t Stop” IS “9PM (Till I Come)” isn’t it? Well, isn’t it?! Sorry, went a bit Bobby Robson there when he was asked about Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal…

Go to 3:04

Anyway, rip off or not, the UK record buying public lapped it up sending it to No 3 in the charts after import copies sales had already sent it to No 61 four months earlier. With my decaying eyesight, on first glance I thought that was Fay Tozer from Steps who’s fronting this appearance but it’s not. I’m guessing that’s Yolanda Rivera who was also the featured artist on “9PM (Till I Come)” – see what I mean about just repeating the formula? I’m really not sure why she needs a mic strapped to her head though as there are hardly any words in the track. Looks like a case of overkill whilst the track is as appetising as roadkill.

Just like B*Witched, here was another all female group who were coming to the end of the line (ahem). Honeyz were onto their fourth consecutive Top 10 hit with “Never Let You Down” and there would be another one early in the new year and yet…despite all five hits coming from their album “Wonder No. 8”, they couldn’t shift huge numbers of it in the shops. It would eventually achieve gold status but never got higher than No 33 in the charts. Was that reliance on hit singles a hinderance to their plans for longevity? If you’re only as good as your last single without a backbone of healthy album sales behind you, were you always just one flop away from the dumper?

I’m also wondering if the change in line up with original member Heavenli Abdi replaced by Mariami Goodman had a destabilising effect similar to when Jacquie O’Sullivan replaced Siobahn Fahey in Bananarama? I don’t think that particular incarnation of the group was ever really accepted by the fans so was it a similar as with Honeyz or am I overstating the case there? Were people really invested enough in Honeyz to care or were the members interchangeable? After all, Bananarama had been going for six years by the time Siobhan left. Honeyz? Barely 12 months.

Although “Never Let You Down” was yet another polished R&B pop number, it was hardly anything unexpected and indeed reminds me of Eternal’s 1994 hit “Oh Baby I” Peddling a sound which was five years old in 1999 maybe wasn’t the best strategy. As with B*Witched, although they would appear in TOTP subsequently, this is the last time I’ll be reviewing them in this blog. Farewell both.

It’s that cover by Liam Gallagher and Steve Craddock of The Jam’s “Carnation” again next which we saw just two shows ago as an exclusive performance. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s entered the charts at No 6 – that seemed quite high for a song by a band who had split up 17 years before but then The Jam Army and the Weller disciples were a loyal bunch. Of course, a reunion was what was really wanted by the fanbase but as that was never on the cards then the next best thing was the chance of grabbing, if not new material by their heroes, at least new interpretations of their work. Plus there’s the Oasis faithful who would have wanted to own it for Liam’s involvement. Clearly though it was going to be a quick sales phenomenon and the double A-side (alongside Buffalo Tom’s take on “Going Underground”) duly dropped out of the Top 40 in three weeks.

Ah, there’s Faye Tozer along with the rest of Steps who have entered the charts at No 5 with their latest single “After The Love Has Gone”. Not a cover of the Earth, Wind & Fire classic nor even of the definitely not a classic 1985 hit for Princess, this was, just like B*Witched earlier, an attempt to return to the sound which originally brought the band success. No, not that sound. Not the line dancing, boot scootin’ nonsense of “5,6,7,8” but the faux ABBA hits that came after it. There’s an undeniable whiff of the Swedish superstars in this one and whilst it certainly worked well enough to maintain the group’s high end chart momentum, it did break their run of three No 2s and one No 1 that they’d achieved with their last four releases. Cause for concern? Probably not. They still had plenty of hits left in them including another chart topper but as with B*Witched and Honeyz earlier, I won’t be around to review them.

I’ve said this before but Lee Latchford-Evans and ‘H’ must have had the flimsiest pop star job descriptions in music history. Just learn this release’s required dance steps and grin inanely whenever the camera comes near you. They’re like sign language translators* on speed.

*With apologies to sign language translators.

Tina Turner was still having hits in late 1999? Well, she was but like a few artists on this particular TOTP, it was all coming to an end. Talking of which, a wish the little chat she had with Jamie Theakston pre-performance had come to an end sooner. It did neither person involved any favours. Anyway, without a Top 10 hit in the UK since 1995’s Bond theme “Goldeneye”, Tina turned to the people behind her peer Cher’s recent commercial resurgence. Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling had produced the all conquering “Believe” and you can hear their touch on “When The Heartache Is Over” which was the lead single from her tenth and final studio album “Twenty Four Seven”. In truth though, it was never going to have the impact of “Believe”, neither in sales nor culturally. However, it was a sizeable hit on the US Dance charts thanks to its numerous remixes on the 12” released in that territory.

Tina gives her usual performance of gusto and jerky dance movements here but I was more interested in why Jessie Wallace/Kat Slater was one of the backing dancers and why Father Ted was on the drums. Tina retired from touring in 2009 aged 69 to live a quiet life in Switzerland until her death in 2023.

Christina Aguilera remains at No 1 with “Genie In Bottle”. Now, clearly I’m not Jamie Theakston’s biggest fan but something he says in his intro struck a chord with me. “And I thought genies came in lamps” he quips but he’s right – the established perception of a genie comes from the tale of Aladdin based on a Middle Eastern folk tale associated with The Arabian Knights (though it wasn’t part of the original text but rather added by Frenchman Antoine Galland). The story depicts Aladdin being tricked by a sorcerer to retrieve a magic oil lamp from a cave. When the lamp is rubbed, the genie is released. That’s a lamp not a bottle. Bottles have nothing to do with it. Indeed, in modern parlance and to reuse the theme of football managers in press conferences, bottles signify something that isn’t special and certainly not magical. Here’s Jose Mourinho when he was with my beloved Chelsea the first time in 2004…

So who wrote this nonsense about genies in bottles? Wikipedia tells me that a Steve Kipner was one of the co-writers and that he received an Ivor Novello award for International Hit of the Year for it. Clearly the judges weren’t aware of The Arabian Knights then.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Macy Gray	I Try	Liked it, didn’t buy it
2	B*Witched	Jesse Hold On	No thanks
3	ATB	Don’t Stop	No – please do!
4	Honeyz	Never Let You Down	No
5	Liam Gallagher and Steve Craddock / Buffalo Tom	Carnation / Going Underground	Negative
6	Steps	After The Love Has Gone	I did not
7	Tina Turner	When The Heartache Is Over	Nope
8	Christina Aguilera	Genie In A Bottle	Nah

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002wbq6/top-of-the-pops-22101999

TOTP 15 OCT 1999

Posted on 26 Days Ago by 80stastic

It’s mid October 1999, I’m 31 years old and have been working for the same record shop retail chain (Our Price) for nine years. The impending Christmas trading period will be my tenth on the trot and the thought of that is exhausting. I’m also wondering if I might be ageing out of the job – was working in a record shop a young person’s game? Most of the songs in the Top 40 I was now not just failing to connect with but openly hating on some cases.

I’d also been living in Manchester for nearly the whole of the 90s and, as much as I loved the place, it could be a harsh city at times. My wife and I started to talk about the possibility of moving away and of doing something else altogether. To this end, I actually started applying for jobs outside of retail. I attended a recruitment exercise with the bank First Direct in Leeds but I didn’t perform very well on the day unfortunately. I then turned my attention to paediatric nursing and, around the time that this TOTP was broadcast, went to a careers day in Harrogate but realised whilst I was there that I didn’t really have the right level of enthusiasm to pursue it. Eventually, I would find a way out of both Manchester and record shops but that’s for a future post. For now, I was at least thinking seriously about starting a new chapter whilst still selling CDs and cassettes of music I mostly disliked to the Great British Public. They probably all ended up in landfill sites.

Our host for this one is Jayne Middlemiss and it’s the final leg of the Top Of The Pops On Tour project which is in the Time & Icon club in Swansea. Just like all other venues on the tour, it no longer exists and neither should it with a name like that. Not quite as bad as that which I frequented in my teenage years in Worcester – Images On Glass – but still very poor.

We start with Eurythmics who, not having been near a TOTP studio since 31st August 1989, are onto their second consecutive appearance with “I Saved The World Today”. What was the reason? Well, they were back, back, BACK (as Smash Hits used to say) with a new album called “Peace”, their first in ten years. This week Annie and Dave have a full band behind them as opposed to the acoustic set up they employed last time. It’s a testament to the quality of the song they both versions work equally as well. The album was toured with all profits going to Greenpeace and Amnesty International with a special promotional concert aboard the former charity’s Rainbow Warrior II. All of this seemed to indicate an agenda behind the duo’s decision to reunite (quite possibly most forcibly coming from Lennox) that if they were going to do it, then some definable good must come from it. Did they save the world? No. Did they achieve their objective? I think so.

In my last post, I rather unnecessarily banged on about who was the first Spice Girl to release a solo single. I’m not sure I came to a definitive answer. Thankfully, there doesn’t exist any such tangled mess about solo careers as far as I can tell when it comes to New Kids On The Block and let’s be fair, we needed five ex-NKOTB solo stars like Nigel Farage needs an enquiry into his receiving of a £5 million gift from a crypto billionaire. Not that none of the five members of that boy band decided to go it alone. Three of them released solo material but only one gathered any traction or success. Jordan Knight was the big heartthrob in NKOTB (well, he was my younger sister’s favourite anyway during her brief dalliance with them) and he is the only one to have a solo hit in the UK which he achieved with “Give It To You” when it went to No 5 in our charts. Now, I thought this was hopeless but it seemed to get mainly favourable reviews at the time. To me, it sounded like a Janet Jackson track that hadn’t been mixed properly or even played at the wrong speed. The fact that it sounded like Janet Jackson at all shouldn’t have been a surprise as it was put together by her erstwhile producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis but surely “Give It To You” doesn’t reside in the pile marked their greatest ever records. It’s that staccato rhythm that niggles rather than intrigues me.

Jordan does his best to sell it in this performance but when he does his little, twirling dance moves for the first time, the reaction of the studio audience feels almost patronising in a “ah, look at that old fella still trying to be down with the kids”. I could be wrong about that of course. Knight’s album failed to sell at all in most territories – presumably it wasn’t helped by the inclusion of a cover of Prince’s “I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man”. Who thought that was a good idea?! The other two of his band mates to release solo material were Danny Wood who has seven (SEVEN!) albums listed in his discography though tellingly none have any chart stats listed against them and Joey McIntyre who had one Top 10 hit in America and then a whole bucketful of nothing. So what happened to the rest of them? Do you really want to know? No, nor me.

From one McIntyre to another as we move seamlessly from Danny of NKOTB (or T’KNOB if you will) to Natalie Renée McIntyre aka Macy Gray who, like Eurythmics earlier, was also making her second consecutive TOTP appearance. Now apparently Macy hadn’t been keen on her record company releasing “I Try” as a single because she just couldn’t hear the song’s hit potential. That got me thinking about other cases of artists not appreciating which of their songs were the obvious single choice.

Off the top of my head, The Human League famously didn’t want Virgin to release “Don’t You Want Me” as they thought it would ruin their career – it was the best selling UK single of 1981 and that year’s Christmas No 1. Then there’s Radiohead who objected to the release of “Creep” from their debut album “Pablo Honey” after US College radio play forced Parlophone to rerelease it after it initially flopped. The band feared one-hit wonder status but they had a further 16 Top 40 hits and have been going for 40 years now. Finally, Deacon Blue’s Ricky Ross is notoriously poor at selecting singles and when asked for his choice of song to promote the band’s “When The World Knows Your Name” album went for the title track. Their record label Columbia overruled him and released “Real Gone Kid” – it is their highest charting single of original material.

Compared to Eurythmics, it felt like The Charlatans had only been away from the show for a couple of months but in truth it had been almost exactly two years since they’d last been on. Their last album “Tellin’ Stories” had been a huge success hitting the No 1 spot and going platinum to become the band’s biggest seller ever. All of this was achieved against the backdrop of keyboardist Rob Collins dying in a car crash part way through recording.

The album and the loss of their fellow band member drew a line in the sand. Firstly, the group’s contract with Beggar’s Banquet came to an end (it was actually fulfilled by the release of Best Of album “Melting Pot” in 1998) and they subsequently signed with Universal. Secondly, a new direction was pursued with follow up album “Us And Us Only” which had a country/folk/roots slant supposedly influenced by Tim Burgess’s love of Bob Dylan. Although it peaked at No 2 on the charts, it sold a third of both “Tellin’ Stories” and “Melting Pot”. I have to say that I’m not sure that I know “Us And Us Only” at all other than by its cover artwork. Is that because the singles taken from it weren’t big hits compared to those of its predecessor or was it just that we didn’t play it in the Our Price store I was working in? Probably a bit of both. So, 27 years later, what does lead single “Forever” sound like (to me)? My initial thoughts are that it’s good but it’s hardly an obvious single is it? Certainly the double length album version that I listened to makes more sense in all its psychedelic glory. In conclusion, it was a tad confusing. Still, compared to the next song on the show, it’s literally a colossal classic.

1999 had already given us some of the worst hits imaginable, many of which not only tried our patience but also challenged the status quo of whether they could even be defined as music so mind numbing were they. Then came the ultimate “Hold my beer” moment from Ann Lee who pulled off the seemingly impossible by giving us a record that was not just poor but actually a poor man’s Vengaboys. This was a new low on the shit-o-meter. “Two Times” is so infantile, so insubstantial, so inane that it seemed inconceivable that anyone would buy it and yet it was a huge hit all over Europe. Never mind hating yourself for liking it as suggested by Jayne Middlemiss in her intro, an intervention by all friends and family should have been immediately staged for anyone who was even caught just humming along to it. It can’t even make up its mind – is it two times or three times!

Who was this person who wrought havoc across the continent with this vile tune? Surprisingly, Ann Lee was a Sheffield lass born Annerley Emma Gordon (see what she did there?) who’d moved to Italy in the late 80s and released some solo singles to little recognition. Until “Two Times” hit, her biggest claim to fame had been being credited as one of the co-writers for Corona’s huge 1994 Eurodance smash “Rhythm Of The Night”. However, when I googled her, the first result I got was for Ann Lee the 18th century founding leader of the Shakers movement, later changed to the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing after her death. The Shakers worshiped by ecstatic dancing or “shaking” hence their name. They also composed thousands of songs consisting of syllables and words from unknown languages, the musical equivalent of glossolalia or speaking in tongues which were composed of a single melodic line with no harmonisation. Yeah, you can see where I’m going with this can’t you? As alien as all of that sounds, I think I’d rather listen to Ann Lee the Shaker’s music than “Two Times” by Ann Lee from Sheffield.

After his spectacular re-emergence with the six times platinum “Older” album in 1996, George Michael followed it up with the even more successful Best Of “Ladies & Gentlemen” which was the second biggest selling album of 1998. All of that success left one rather obvious question – what to do next? George’s answer wasn’t exactly out of left field. A covers album seemed like a bit of a fudge to me but in fairness to him, the choice of songs on it wasn’t hackneyed. Rather than instantly recognisable songs, George went mostly for old jazz standards for the album “Songs From The Last Century” with the odd, more contemporary track thrown in like “Roxanne” by The Police. The strategy worked well enough with good sales though not stratospheric. It was his only album release of any description not to get to No 1 and sold a quarter of the preceding Best Of. Its fortunes might not have been helped by the fact that the decision was taken not to release any singles from the album whatsoever.

So why were we seeing George perform “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” on this TOTP then? Well, it was all to do with the charity event NetAid which was an anti-poverty initiative with the aim of reducing third world debt. It seems largely forgotten now, wiped from the collective consciousness but it had some huge names behind it from the world of music and there were not many bigger than George Michael. This clip comes from the London NetAid concert at Wembley Stadium on October 9, 1999 where George performed a set including “Father Figure”. “Freedom! 90” and, obviously, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”. One of the most well known songs of the Great Depression of the 1930s , it is based on a Jewish lullaby and has also been recorded by Bing Crosby. As a vehicle to display the maturity and diversity of George’s voice it’s perfect. As a song to listen to over and over, to my ears, it is not. Maybe I’m just a victim of the era I grew up in but it’s very plodding and hard to get through.

What I did notice though is how far George’s image had changed since his Princess Di hair of his peak Wham! days and designer stubble, leather jacket and jeans look of his “Faith” persona. Dressed in slimming black, with sharp cut yet tousled hair, shades and facial hair (but definitely not the aforementioned designer stubble), this was George Michael as authentic artist and no mistake.

From Bing Crosby to Fred Astaire…just like with The Charlatans earlier, James were back with their first studio album for two years with the intervening time punctuated by the release of a Best Of. Also just like The Charlatans, the only thing I can recall about said album (“Millionaires”) is the cover artwork – to be fair, that huge pig was pretty memorable. There’s another Charlatans parallel in that the album was recorded against a backdrop of band uncertainty with infighting and tensions never far from the surface.

The second track released from it was “Just Like Fred Astaire” (lead single “I Know What I’m Here For” didn’t warrant a TOTP appearance) and although it’s not exactly laid back, it’s certainly a less frenetic song than some of their back catalogue. Not one of their best in my opinion but a good song without doubt that craps all over most of its chart peers. I like its lyrical idea that love is a disease though it’s not quite as good as Laurie Anderson’s idea that language is a virus from outer space. Meanwhile, when Tim Booth sings “I’m losing my hair”, he couldn’t have been more prophetic. Talking of prophetic and indeed Laurie Anderson, check out these lyrics from “Language Is A Virus” which foretell the coming of reality TV by well over a decade:

“Well, I dreamed there was an island
That rose up from the sea
And everybody on the island
Was somebody from TV
And there was a beautiful view
But nobody could see
‘Cause everybody on the island was saying:
Look at me!”

Songwriters: Laurie Anderson, 1986

Watching this performance back, I’m struck by the amount of guitarists up there on stage. I counted four which even allowing for a bass player and lead and rhythm guitarists, still leaves one extra. Still, I’m no musician (I can strum a few chords at best) so what do I know?

Eiffel Trifle (or whatever they were called) have been deposed from the top by the latest release from Britney Spears…ha! Well, you could have been forgiven for believing “Genie In A Bottle” was by Britney as you couldn’t talk about the actual artist behind it – Christina Aguilera – without mentioning her Mickey Mouse Club co-star alongside (Jayne Middlemiss certainly couldn’t). It was a fair comparison I think, not just for their shared showbiz backgrounds but also because of their out and out pop sound that was undercut with deliberate sexual overtones in the lyrics. Ah yes, those lyrics – they were certainly suggestive with lines like “My body’s sayin’, “Let’s go” and “You gotta rub me the right way”. Then there’s Christina’s look, all midriff and leather trousers. There seemed little doubt about the angle that was being persued here.

That’s not to say Christina’s success was all about image. Her debut hit was a quality pop song that cut through – its topping of the charts in 21 countries bears witness to that. From this beginning, she carved out a long career that has seen her described as a pop icon, gay icon, diva, sex symbol and “Voice of a Generation” (yeah, not sure about that one). All she was missing was to score a title winning goal that would generate a commentator cry for the ages…”Agulieraaaaaaa!”

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Eurythmics	I Saved The World Today	No
2	Jordan Knight	Give It To You	You can have it back thanks! No!
3	Macy Gray	I Try	Liked it, didn’t buy it
4	The Charlatans	Forever	Nope
5	Ann Lee	Two Times	Never
6	George Michael	Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?	N/A
7	James	Just Like Fred Astaire	Nah
8	Christina Aguilera	Genie In A Bottle	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002w1qy/top-of-the-pops-15101999

TOTP 08 OCT 1999

Posted on 28 Days Ago by 80stastic

Looking at the running order for this TOTP, I’m struck by the quality of it which is the best it’s been for quite some time. What am I talking about and have I gone mad? Well, there’s the return of the Eurythmics after a decade away for a start plus a cover version that was as unlikely as it was interesting. Added to that the first appearance of a soul singer with a very distinctive voice and the Pet Shop Boys who were usually good value. Usually. However, what is most noticeable is the lack of nasty, 90s dance tunes on the show with only one falling into that category. Granted it is the No 1 record but in these 1999 repeats, I’ll celebrate any small wins I can. Our host is Jamie Theakston and our TOTP On Tour location this week is the Dome II nightclub in Birmingham which is now the O2 Academy.

A quick bit of admin before we start. In previous posts, I’ve been disparaging about the quality of some of the acts that have been in these tour venues which usually numbered around four with the other slots filled by either a promo video or pre-recorded appearances either filmed at the pre-renovation work Elstree studios or some other location. However, all but the No 1 act seem to be in the Dome II nightclub in person this time which include some pretty big names. Lucky Brummies.

We start with the song holding at No 2 this week – “S Club Party” by S Club 7. Now although the group had a squeaky clean image – they had their own kids TV show after all – I did notice a suspect lyric in their hit which is:

“Hoochie mamas, show your nanas”

Songwriters: Hallgeir Rustan / Tor Hermansen / Mikkel Eriksen / Hugh Atkins

Erm…whatever could they mean? Well, AI explains the line like this:

Hoochie mamas: A slang term that originated in hip-hop culture, usually referring to women who dress in a flashy, provocative, or overtly sexy manner.

Show your nanas: “Nanas” is British and Australian slang for grandmothers.

Because it is British pop slang, the phrase isn’t meant to be taken literally. S Club 7 was just trying to rhyme and create a high-energy, party atmosphere by telling the party girls in the crowd to get loud alongside the older, grandmotherly figures. It basically translates to: “Women who want to party, get loud and bring your grandmas, too!

Really?! “Women who want to party, get loud and bring your grandmas, too!” That translation puts me in mind of that scene from Life Of Brian when Brian is caught writing anti-Roman graffiti by a centurion who tells his that Latin grammar is all wrong – “People called Romanes they go the house?”.

The Can’t Stop The Pop website gives a more literal explanation in its article on the song by saying it translates as “Women of low morals, show your vaginas” but explains that can’t have been the intended meaning though the alternative “Women of low morals, show your grandmother” wasn’t much better. Maybe S Club 7 weren’t as innocent as we all thought.

And so to the aforementioned Pet Shop Boys and what would be their final single of the 90s. “New York City Boy” would be their 20th such release of the decade and the second track taken from their “Nightlife” album. The chart fortunes of those 20 singles were a mixed bag. Nine of them went Top 10 (including a No 2) but there were no chart toppers. By comparison, the 80s yielded four No 1s. Of those other eleven 90s hits, eight peaked between Nos 12 and 15 which shows a definite consistency but also a lack of those absolutely huge hits. Neil Tennant infamously said that he knew the duo’s “imperial phase” was over when “Domino Dancing” only entered the charts at No 9 in 1988. Those words would also ring prophetically true into the 90s.

As for “New York City Boy” itself, it’s a completely extravagant disco anthem which was inspired by and written as a tribute to the Village People. In that respect, it fulfilled its brief. However. Its lack of huge chart success (it was one of those ‘consistent’ singles peaking at No 14) was possibly due to the fact that Neil and Chris had already been down this route six years prior when they covered the actual Village People with their version of “Go West” which had delivered their biggest hit of the 90s. So why go there again? Apparently, it had been the idea of producer David Morales (who incidentally had produced the first Pet Shop Boys single of the 90s “So Hard”) and Neil and Chris certainly followed through on that theme with this performance. Sailor-outfitted backing singers, a Native American with traditional headdress, a man with butterfly wings and, bizarrely, a…more mature lady shall we say in a checked dress who doesn’t seem to know why she’s there or what she’s doing. Who was she?

Oh, and there’s a continuation of the “hoochie” theme with this lyric:

“The street is amazing, the hoochies unreal”

Writer(s): Neil Tennant, Christopher Lowe, David Morales

Do you think the Pet Shop Boys intended its usage to have quite the same meaning as S Club 7? Somehow I can’t quite see it.

It’s that soul singer with the distinctive voice next as Macy Gray makes her TOTP bow. Appearing from seemingly nowhere, Macy (real name Natalie Renée McIntyre) went to the same elementary school as another singer who would adopt a stage name – one Brian Warner who would become Marilyn Manson though they didn’t know each other. As Jamie Theakston says in his intro, Macy rarely spoke as a child – she didn’t learn to hold a conversation until her 10th birthday – so embarrassed was she by her voice. However, she took up singing whilst at the University of Southern California after agreeing to write songs for a friend and the intended vocalist failed to show. Signed by Atlantic Records whilst singing in jazz cafes, she was later dropped in the middle of recording her debut album but was subsequently picked up by Epic Records who would release her debut album “On How Life Is”. After her first single “Do Something” failed to make the Top 40, her second release “I Try” was a huge sleeper hit becoming the UK’s 20th best selling single of 1999 despite never getting higher than No 6 in the weekly chart. Look at these numbers for proof of its longevity:

10 – 10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 7 – 7 – 6 – 9 – 11 -11 – 15 – 13 – 16 – 15 – 22 – 27 – 38

That’s four and a half months on the Top 40. On the back of that profile, her album would achieve huge commercial success going four times platinum in the UK and it was a similar story in the US. “I Try” would win a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (quite the irony given her childhood misgivings about her voice) whilst Macy would collect two BRIT Awards for International Breakthrough Act and International Female Solo Artist. And yet, despite releasing ten albums during her career, I would struggle to name any of her songs other than “I Try” – is it the same for you? Admittedly, those ten albums suffered from diminishing returns sales wise (albeit with some good critical reviews) but even so.

A parallel film career whilst also contributing songs for soundtrack albums kept her profile high but in my head, I can only picture Macy in late 1999. I should perhaps have taken more interest as I really liked “I Try”. Her performance of it here with her stooped physical stance puts me in mind of Ian Dury or John Lyon though both their postures were due to medical reasons – Dury contracted polio and Lydon spinal meningitis when they were both aged seven. When I eventually left my job in record shops after nearly 10 years, I chose three songs to play on the shop stereo to go out on. One was “My Way” by Frank Sinatra for obvious reasons but the other two were “MacArthur Park”* the Richard Harris version (I really can’t explain that choice!) and “I Try” which was probably just because of the timing of when I left but it will always remind me of that life event.

*What links Macy Gray to the Pet Shop Boys? “New York City Boy” samples the Donna Summer version of “MacArthur Park” and that’s possibly the most tenuous connection I’ve ever made in this blog.

So who was the first Spice Girl to go solo? The answer isn’t as straightforward as it could be. Strictly speaking, the first to market was Melanie B with “I Want You Back” which was released in September 1998. However, it also featured Missy ‘Misdemeanour’ Elliott so was that strictly a solo release? Next up was Melanie C but hers was a supporting role on the Bryan Adams song “When You’re Gone” so I don’t think that counts. That leaves “Look At Me” by Geri Halliwell as the first truly solo Spice Girl single in May 1999 but…she wasn’t an actual Spice Girl at this point having already left the group so can she be the answer to the question ‘who was the first Spice Girl to go solo?’? That could be semantics at play but if not her then who? In chronological order that would return us to Melanie B when she released her cover of Cameo’s “Word Up”…except that single was officially credited to Melanie G as she’d recently got married to Jimmy Gulzar and taken his surname but Melanie G only existed for that one release and nobody talks about Mel G when the subject of the Spice Girls is discussed so…that brings us back to Melanie C and her single “Goin’ Down”.

The first track taken from her triple platinum album “Northern Star”, this was no “Wannabe”. In fact, it was nothing like any Spice Girls release ever. A defiantly rock track, it was supposedly inspired by Blur’s “Song 2” but it sounds like Mel’s doing her best Skunk Anansie impression to me. I have to say that it’s not great – all style over content – though it secured a fairly respectable chart peak of No 4. Mel’s sound wasn’t the only thing that was new – she also unveiled her latest look. That blond spiky hair had more than a touch of the aforementioned John Lydon about it (Jamie Theakston even refers to her as “Punky Spice”) and was that gold tooth cap always there? More than that though was her attitude. Gone were the backflips and cheesy smiles – this was a growling, confrontational Melanie C. She could even be said to be courting controversy, The lyrics include the words “bitch” and “whore” (though they’re obviously muted in this performance) and then there’s her video for the song which was banned by some outlets for its violent content though the biggest crime is Mel’s Axl Rose spring tartan skirt.

French and Saunders memorably parodied said video…

Joking aside though, Mel C has some amazing stats to her name:

Her album “Northern Star” is the best selling album of any of the Spice Girls’ solo releases
She holds the record for the largest attendance of a free concert within a public event
She has co-written 11 UK number ones, more than any other female artist in chart history
She remains the only female performer to top the charts as a solo artist, as part of a duo, quartet and quintet

Having said all of the above, I heard her latest single “Sweat” on the radio the other day and it’s proper pony.

When did tribute albums become a thing? I suppose it depends on your definition of what a tribute album is. For example, is “Hollies Sing Dylan” a tribute to Bob Dylan by The Hollies or just The Hollies doing a load of Bob Dylan covers? Does a tribute album have to be composed of multiple different acts covering the work of one artist? That would rule out “The Chipmunks Sing The Beatles Hits” which is probably a just as well.

OK, so if we’re going with that rule, the first one I think I was aware of was 1990’s “Red Hot + Blue” which was a compilation of covers of Cole Porter songs by various artists including Annie Lennox, U2, Debbie Harry and Iggy Pop and, best of all, David Byrne’s version of “Don’t Fence Me In”. In 1994, we had The Carpenters tribute album “If I Were A Carpenter” which had a more indie vibe to it with contributions from Sonic Youth, Shonen Knife, Babes In Toyland and my personal favourite Redd Kross. I think there might have been one for The Smiths as well but in 1999 came the big one – well, a big one if, like me, you’d grown up with The Jam. Now, to be clear, it was my elder brother who was a fully paid up member of The Jam Army but I couldn’t help but be exposed to them by osmosis if nothing else. When Britpop came along, Paul Weller found himself positioned as The Godfather of the movement and name checked constantly as an influence for its main protagonists. Was that part of the reason behind the release of their tribute album named “Fire & Skill: The Songs Of The Jam”?

Whatever its origin story, it featured some very contemporary indie rock artists such as Gene, Heavy Stereo and Silver Sun alongside some bigger names like Noel and Liam Gallagher, Garbage and the Beastie Boys. A double A-side single was released to promote it which was “Going Underground / Carnation” by Buffalo Tom / Liam Gallagher and Steve Cradock. Now, “Going Underground” was an obvious choice being The Jam’s first of four No 1 singles but “Carnation”? That was an album track from the band’s sixth and final LP “The Gift” so nowhere near as well known to the uncommitted. It is a fine song though nevertheless.

This 1999 version of it works well enough but I could have done without the overly keen attempt to instil it with a spaced out, trippy vibe with the reverb effects on Liam’s vocals (which suited the track anyway without them) and the backwards tape loops. It was a track from The Jam in 1982 not a psychedelic Beatles song from the late 60s. Anyway, although not credited on the single, that’s clearly Noel Gallagher up there with his brother and Ocean Colour Scene’s Steve Cradock and is that Oasis’s Alan White on the drums as well? Noel added his own individual contribution to the album (“To Be Someone” from 1978’s “All Mod Cons”) and was a regular collaborator with Paul Weller. The whole album doesn’t appear to be on Spotify though Buffalo Tom’s version of “Going Underground” is and it’s worth a listen for a different take on a well known classic.

We hadn’t seen nor heard from Eurythmics for nearly the whole of the 90s. After releasing eight albums in eight years, tensions between Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart were strained and the band disbanded with little fanfare. Lennox would release two successful solo albums whilst Dave Stewart formed The Spiritual Cowboys and released his own underrated solo album. In his intro, Jamie Theakston says that Annie had told him that it had been 10 years since the release of their last single. Well, that was nearly true. Their last single taken from an album of new material came in April 1990 – “Angel” from “We Too Are One” – and I should know as I bought it. After that their was a rerelease of “Love Is A Stranger” and a remix of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” to promote 1991’s six times platinum selling “Greatest Hits” collection so Annie wasn’t 100% correct but she wasn’t far off. Suddenly though, with just a few weeks left of the decade they were back.

So what prompted their return? The popular story is that after receiving a Brit Award For Outstanding Contribution To Music at the start of 1999, they decided to reconvene Eurythmics once more. However, that’s a false narrative as they’d already been writing together since playing at a record company party in 1998 and subsequently at a benefit concert for the family of journalist Ruth Picardie who had died of breast cancer. The result of their endeavours was “Peace”, the eighth and, so far, final Eurythmics album.

The lead single was “I Saved The World Today”, melodic of tune yet sorrowful of mood and possessing that, as ever, crystal clear vocal from Annie. It was a strong comeback and deserved better than missing the Top 10 by one place. The follow up single – “17 Again” – was even better and I especially enjoyed the interpolation of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” in its coda. The album did well commercially though its sales were dwarfed by those of that 1991 “Greatest Hits” which was the second best selling album of that year behind Simply Red’s “Stars”. The only Eurythmics album released since “Peace” was another Best Of called “Ultimate Collection” in 2005 whilst Dave and Annie have performed at one off events in 2014 (a Beatles tribute concert) and at Sting’s 30th We’ll Be Together benefit concert in 2019. They were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Another return now as Gabrielle is back in the charts for the first time in two years with her new single “Sunshine”, the lead track from her third album “Rise”. Had we missed her? I’m sure some had but me? Not so much. I always found her too generic, too samey. Sure, “Dreams” was a memorable tune but for me, the majority of her output conformed to a soul/pop formula that was certainly radio friendly but not very substantial. “Sunshine” was another such song in my book. Conversely, her next single, the title track from her album, would be more of a standout with its Bob Dylan sample taking her back to No 1 for the first time since her debut with the aforementioned “Dreams”. She would perfect her blueprint sound with “Out Of Reach” in 2001 from the soundtrack to Bridget Jones’s Diary.

And so to the No 1 and the only nasty dance track in the show (in my humble opinion). “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65 was in its third week at the top and by this point, any novelty hook that it might have had long since lost its appeal. They would have one more hit – the No 3 “Move Your Body” – so we’re not done with this lot yet I’m sorry to say.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	S Club 7	S Club Party	No
2	Pet Shop Boys	New York City Boy	Nope
3	Macy Gray	I Try	Good song but no
4	Melanie C	Goin’ Down	Nah
5	Buffalo Tom / Liam Gallagher and Steve Cradock	Going Underground / Carnation	Despite my association to The Jam, I did not
6	Eurythmics	I Saved The World Today	See 3 above
7	Gabrielle	Sunshine	No thanks
8	Eiffel 65	Blue (Da Ba Dee)	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002w1qw/top-of-the-pops-08101999

TOTP 01 OCT 1999

Posted on May 8 by 80stastic

Five of this episode’s eight hits we’ve already seen on previous shows so what gives? More running order manipulation by executive producer Chris Cowey or was it a particularly static chart this week?

*checks official.charts.com website*

Well, the Top 40 consisted entirely of new entries and songs going down the charts with a solitary non-mover. I haven’t checked but I think the charts were like this most weeks around this time as new release discounting by record companies took hold. There were eleven new entries so obviously they couldn’t all be shown so the five highest were featured which I guess can be justified. Here’s the thing though – of those five, two we’d already seen as exclusive performances before they were even in the charts. So what about the other three hits we’d seen before? Well, one is last week’s No 1 which is still at the top so I can’t argue with that, one is a previous No 1 which was at No 4 (so no need to show that again) and one which had debuted at No 2 three weeks ago and gone down the charts every week since and was now at No 8 (absolute travesty that it was shown again!).

Our host is Jayne Middlemiss and we’ve reached the Newcastle leg of our Top Of The Tops On Tour journey around the country with the show coming from the Ikon nightclub which guess what? Yep, it’s not there anymore. Geordie Jayne must have been in her element though.

We start with that ludicrous showing of the No 8 hit this week which is “The Launch” by DJ Jean. What else is there to say about this one? I have nothing so here’s how they reviewed it in clubbing magazine Mixmag when listing ‘The Biggest Drops in Dance Music’ (whatever that means) in 2020:

“Get ready for the launch advises a vocal near the start of this track. The sage words follow a sample of NASA comms, which come back around as a space shuttle countdown (5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1..) as the track builds towards its momentous drop. It’s extremely cheesy, and extremely fun”.

Seb Wheeler; Dave Turner; Patrick Hinton (17 April 2020). “The Best Drops In Dance Music According To You”. Mixmag

“Cheesy and extremely fun”? Queasy and extremely dumb I’d say. Next!

And again I say NEXT! No, no, no,no, NO! Not Shania Twain and “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”! Now, I’ve used a lot of exclamation marks in my words above but I feel justified in exclaiming my horror at this song. I can’t be the only person who abhors this tune can I? Well, I’m not because there’s at least one reader of this blog who agrees with me who said of it:

“Shania Twain is the soundtrack to drunken hen do’s around the world”

Essor, 29 April 2026

Indeed. So who else is with us? There must be some negative reviews of “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” online no? Let me have a look…

*checks comments against its official video on YouTube*

…erm, no. Overwhelmingly positive including testimonies about female cancer survivors who used the song to give them strength and fortitude. I’m beginning to feel a bit guilty now. Surely someone else can’t abide this song?

*checks internet desperately*

Nothing! Well, just one who said this in response to a forum post asking if people felt euphoric after listening to it or whether it was a cliché:

“Can’t stand it, personally. I can’t say I’ve ever felt euphoric after listening to any particular song. Music for me tends to be a darker expression, like ‘My Body is a Cage’ or ‘Born a Girl’ (Manic Street Preachers)”.

Reddit, 2023, username unknown

Hmm. I’m not sure I want to closely associate my remarks with someone who sees music as a dark expression. I think I’ll leave this whole conversation by referring to my mate Robin who once pointed out to me that music is subjective and that he can have the opinion that he dislikes everything Elton John has ever recorded. Indeed, it’s his right to.

OK, who’s next? Ah, a perfect choice for the TOTP On Tour brand. An artist who used to be in a successful group but who left and was now pursuing solo stardom. This sort of promotion was made for such a scenario. Kéllé Bryan had, of course, been a part of UK R&B girl group Eternal…until she was sacked by fax by the Bennett sisters Easther and Vernie after the release of their Greatest Hits album in 1997 due to a reported “breakdown in professional relations”. Unsurprisingly, the accounts of both parties vary wildly as to the reasons behind the split but what is definite is that, by this point, Louise Redknapp (née Nurding) had long since left the group so it left the sisters to continue as a duo.

Sadly for Kéllé, her solo career never achieved lift off like Louise’s did. In fact, it barely got off the ground. This solitary single – “Higher Than Heaven” – was all she had to show for it. A second single and album scheduled for release in late 1999 never appeared though both singles are now available on Spotify. So what happened? Online reports suggest her health suffered after she was diagnosed with lupus and therefore unable to undertake any promotional activities. It’s a theory that potentially holds water though, as ever, the truth is probably more nuanced. Could she have been successful as a solo artist? There was definitely some promise as “Higher Than Heaven” was a bright, gospel-tinged R&B/pop song that was perfect for daytime radio. Its No 14 peak possibly didn’t do it justice. However, for me, it couldn’t eclipse its namesake by Age Of Chance which really should have been a bigger hit:

Kéllé would go on to have a career in TV appearing in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks and becoming part of the Loose Women team. Together with Louise Redknapp, she declined the chance to take part in an Eternal reunion in 2023 after reported comments by the Bennett sisters stating that they would not appear in a number of LGBT Pride events claiming that the trans community had hijacked Pride.

P.S. This is weird and surely nothing to do with algorithms. Just as I finished writing about Kéllé, Celebrity Bridge Of Lies came on TV starring Clare Richards from Steps, Kimberly Wyatt of The Pussycat Dolls, Amelle Berrabah of Sugababes and yep, Kéllé Bryan ex-Eternal. Spooky!

After just one new song we’re back to a track we only just saw in the last show. Fortunately, it is David Bowie. Unfortunately, it’s not one of his best. “Thursday’s Child” was previewed in a ‘new’ (as categorised by the TOTP caption person) performance seven days prior but as the single has gone into the Top 40 at No 16, we get a repeat showing this week. I’ve not a lot else to say about it having already discussed it in the last post. However, I couldn’t help but note that, in 1999, a new Bowie song debuted on the chart lower than that of someone who was chucked out of Eternal. Hmm.

And still talking of Eternal, whilst their line up had halved to a duo since their inception, next up are a group with seven members in it – yes, it’s S Club 7 with their follow up to their debut No 1 single “Bring It All Back”. Whilst that track had been all out pop with a bpm that was almost exhausting, their second single slowed the beats down with an R&B groove whilst retaining an unshiftable hook. The real genius here though was in its title. “S Club Party” reinforced their brand whilst imbuing it with the idea that they were all about fun – “There ain’t no party like an S Club Party” indeed. It was clever stuff. The songwriters even incorporated a verse which name checked every member of the group to imprint their identities on the nation’s consciousness. The single didn’t quite emulate the chart success of its predecessor by peaking at No 2 but it was surely strong consolidation for the fledging pop act. S Club 7 were doing their thing alright.

And the pop sensations keep on coming. As host Jayne Middlemiss states in her intro, Britney Spears had the biggest selling single of the year in the UK at this point with “…Baby One More Time” (a fact that wouldn’t change by the end of 1999). Given that level of success, the obvious thing to do would be to repeat the formula which is exactly what Britney did with “(You Drive Me) Crazy”. Now, in fairness to her, she didn’t jump to that conclusion straight away. Her second single “Sometimes” had a much softer sound to it with the beat count slowed right down to ballad status. It had worked as well giving Britney a Top 3 hit over here. However, for her third single she did revert to that original blueprint. “(You Drive Me) Crazy” was essentially “…Baby One More Time” all over again – “Baby Two More Times” if you will. Not that she should be criticised necessarily for that. Plenty of artists have done the same thing before and since but you couldn’t fail to notice the similarities.

Yet again Britney can’t be in the studio herself (nearly all her appearances to this point had just been via the official video for her hit) so she sends us another to camera message to apologise. Again. Anyway, the video is what you would expect. A massive troupe of dancers busting moves everywhere in a club setting but if you look closely you’ll see cameos by Adrian Grenier (Entourage) and Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina The Teenage Witch) as “(You Drive Me) Crazy” was used in the soundtrack for the movie Drive Me Crazy in which they starred. I have never seen said film nor do I wish to but I must admit to not even being aware of its existence so maybe the endorsement by association with Britney didn’t quite work? “(You Drive Me) Crazy” would go Top 5 in the UK but more No 1s would follow with “Born To Make You Happy” and yet another “…Baby One More Time” apeing hit in “Oops!…I Did It Again” (erm…again) going to the top of our singles chart.

Right Cowey, explain yourself! Why was Lou Bega on again given that “Mambo No 5 (A Little Bit Of)” was now at No 4, its lowest chart position so far having spent two weeks at No 1 and a further two at No 2? He’d already had two appearances on the show courtesy of his time at the top. There were other new entries into this week’s Top 40 that could have featured like Idlewild or Blink 182. You couldn’t have showcased them? Admittedly they were a lot further down the chart but in the chart they certainly were. Bah!

Eiffel 65 remain at the top of the tree with “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” for the second of three weeks at No 1. Their hit would become the second biggest selling single of the year in the UK. Looking at that year end chart, this particular TOTP featured four artists who appeared in the Top 10 including three within the Top 4. They were Britney Spears, Eiffel 65, Lou Bega and Shania Twain. 1999 – what a time to be alive.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	DJ Jean	The Launch	Of course not
2	Shania Twain	Man! I Feel Like A Woman!	NEVER!
3	Kéllé Bryan	Higher Than Heaven	Didn’t happen
4	David Bowie	Thursday’s Child	Negative
5	S Club 7	S Club Party	Nope
6	Britney Spears	(You Drive Me) Crazy	Nah
7	Lou Bega	Mambo No 5 (A Little Bit Of)	No
8	Eiffel 65	Blue ( Da Ba Dee)	I did not

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002vr8v/top-of-the-pops-01101999